When Worlds Collide
by owlman114
Summary: MASSIVE CROSSOVERS, SPOILERS After FMA, Ed tries to get back home with the help of Rosette Christopher of Chrno Crusade. Join them as they gallavant from anime to anime, searching for a way home. Now in Trigun.
1. Chapter 1

I have now redone the story, making little changes here and there to help the flow of the story. I think you'll like it.

Author's note- this story takes place (long) after the final episode of Full Metal Alchemist, and near the beginning of Chrno Crusade (before Azmaria). I will also be putting in various other animes in later chapters, but CONSIDER THIS A (POTENTIAL) SPOILER WARNING FOR ANY AND ALL ANIMES USED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Ahem. Thank you, and enjoy the story.

Sincerely, Owlman.

A typical morning at Mary Magdalene convent, located in the New York countryside. The sun was shining, the birds singing, the chores being done. Everything was perfect.

"CHRNO! I'M GONNA RIP OFF YOUR POINTY LITTLE EARS AND- and- AND DO SOMETHING REALLY HORRIBLE TO YOU WITH THEM!"

A collective sigh from the rest of convent. Another idyllic morning ruined. But it was to be expected. Sister Rosette was not called "The Goddess of Destruction" (albeit behind her back) for nothing. She was not permitted to handle or clean any glass, as it seemed to shatter at her very touch. Nearly every vehicle she had driven ended up a twisted hunk of metal, and it was a wonder that the very building that housed them all hadn't collapsed, exploded, or caught fire yet. "_Yet_" being the operative word. So it was no surprise to the other sisters that she could obliterate peace and quiet as easily as she did material items.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorrysorrysorrySORRY!" Another common sight- the nearly omnipotent devil, Chrno, running for his life with an angered Rosette hot on his heels. However, Rosette usually had on more than a sheet. "I didn't see anything! I SWEAR!"

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF SWEET FORTUNE IS GOING ON HERE!" came a voice that both the Sister and the devil knew only too well. They froze in their tracks, still in a running position, and turned their heads to look at the newcomer.

"H-hi, Sister Kate," managed Rosette. She seemed the only one of the two capable of speech. "Chrno and I were just-"

"Were just running around, screaming like banshees, is that it?" the matronly young woman fixed them with a steely glare. "Into my office. Both of you."

"But-"

"_Now_." At that moment, God himself could not have frightened them more.

_Gulp._ "Yes, ma'am." Rosette replied, grabbed her partner in crime (who was using this little exchange to try to sneak away) and sulked into the office.

To this day, the nuns stationed at Mary Magdalene say that the walls still echo with that conversation, and if you listen hard enough, you can hear it.

"Now, WHY were you running around the halls wearing only a sheet?" Sister Kate asked as she sat down in her chair. "And it had better be good."

"Um, well, y'see-"

"I'm waiting, Sister Rosette." Again, that tone. Sometimes Rosette thought that Kate was a devil in disguise, able to make people bend to her will just by using that tone.

"It's all Chrno's fault." Rosette mumbled. Hearing his name, the devil looked up.

"Eh! How's it MY fault?" he spluttered.

"You came into my room without me saying you could-"

"I thought you had slept in again! I didn't want you to get chewed out-"

"Oh, right! You just wanted a glimpse- thought it would be funny to come into my room while I was changing-"

"What? Now you're making me out to be the Elder!"

"That's cause you've been taking a leaf or two from his book, you little pervert-"

"Me? You're the one that uses your 'feminine wiles' to get me to do things-"

"Why you _little_-"

Sister Kate, who had been watching the argument like a tennis match, decided to intervene. "Enough! I don't care who did what! I'm punishing both of you! You're both going to have to clean the front hall, top to bottom, using toothbrushes!" She peered at them over her glasses. "And may the Lord have mercy on you if I find so much as a single spot of dirt when I come to inspect."

Chrno and Rosette hung their heads. "Yes'm," they mumbled in unison. They got up to leave. Just as Rosette left, she heard, "Sister Rosette?"

She turned. "Yes, Sister Kate?"

The elder Sister looked as though she were about to speak, then stopped. She smiled slightly and said, "You might want to change first."

Rosette turned the colour of a radish and nodded, then hurried out the door.

Sister Kate removed her glasses and sighed. The girl wasn't intentionally disruptive, and it didn't seem right to punish her for it. But she couldn't have hooligans running around unchecked in the halls. This was a convent, not a boarding school. Order reigned supreme here. She got up and decided to start her rounds. Even if Rosette wasn't purposefully uncooperative, there were plenty who were.

"This stinks." Chrno grumbled as he rinsed out his toothbrush for the umpteenth time. His hand was sore from gripping the tiny handle, and he was only done the third tile on the floor. "Remind me to never try to help you again."

"Oh, stuff it," Rosette said from the ladder, "it's your fault, not mine." She was currently cleaning grime off the murals high on the walls that was probably older than she was. Suddenly, the ladder wobbled and she fell. Before she could hit the ground, she landed in two strong arms.

"Ooof!" She groaned as the wind was punched out of her. She looked up at her saviour.

Chrno was looking down at her with an almost lover-like concern. "Are you all right?" he asked. He leaned in for a better vantage point in which to make sure she hadn't hurt herself when he caught her. This brought their faces inches apart.

"Yes, thanks to you… " And though she would never admit it out loud, _especially_ not to him, he smelt good. _Very _good. She leaned in for a better whiff…

"_Ahem_. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Rosette shrieked and leapt out of Chrno's arms. Due to the sudden loss of weight that had previously counterbalanced him, he found himself rushing face first to meet the floor. Hard.

"F-father Remington! What a surprise!" Rosette found herself in an awkward position with Chrno for the second time that day. She struggled to change the subject. "Father, what brings you here today?" Her face felt like she had spent the night in the boiler room, it was so hot. From the ground, Chrno slowly regained painful consciousness. He tried to move and groaned.

"We have a visitor. I'm here to escort him to Sister Kate." Remington replied.

Rosette forgot all about her embarrassment, and even Chrno paused trying to get up. Having a visitor was rare. Having one come in totally unannounced was unheard of.

Remington stepped aside, revealing a man nearly as tall as he was, clad in a red overcoat, floppy hat, and yellow glasses. The stranger removed the glasses, and suddenly Rosette was staring at two world-wise eyes. Those eyes looked like they had glimpsed the face of God –and hadn't enjoyed the experience.

The man bent down and helped Chrno to his feet. Rosette knew from experience how heavy he was, and yet the man hauled the devil up by the arm like a child.

"There you go." The man said, and Rosette was surprised by the tenor. Where she had expected a deep, booming tenor, it had an almost…adolescent pitch, as though he were only a few years past puberty. His accent was slight, but seemed to Russian or Germanic. The stranger turned to Remington. "I'd like to see the Headmistress now, please."

Remington nodded. "Rosette, would you bring us some tea once you're done here, please?" with that, he led the golden-eyed newcomer away to Sister Kate's office.

Rosette and Chrno looked at each other. Finding out who the man was would be much more interesting than scrubbing… and besides, the hall wasn't going anywhere. They ran down the hallway towards the kitchen.

A lone figure watched them leave. Good. They didn't notice him, so the invisibility spell was obviously working. Now, all that remained was to get the item the visitor was carrying and give it to his master to receive his new title. He grinned. Right in the enemy's nest and they didn't have a clue. It seemed that the exorcists had become so busy protecting the world that they let their own security down. He chuckled to himself. Even if he did have to walk carefully to give the spell time to compensate for his surroundings, this was going to be far too easy. With that thought, he began walking towards the office.

"Aaaah." The visitor leaned back in his chair as he sipped his tea. "I haven't had anything like this tea for a while." He looked up at Rosette. "_Danke_- er, thank you." Chrno, who was standing by the teacart, scowled slightly.

'_So I was right,'_ thought Rosette triumphantly. _'German.' _But that led to even more questions- Who was he? Where did he come from? Why was he here?

Apparently Sister Kate had those same questions running around in her mind as well. "Why have you come to Mary Magdalene convent, Mr. …?

The man set down his tea. "Elric," he replied, as he began to remove his coat. "My name is Edward Elric." When he had freed his right arm, what Rosette saw made her gasp. _His arm was made of metal._ He held it up for everyone to see and made a fist.

"I come from a place where there are two great sciences: Automail, which gives amputees limbs made from cogs and gears like the prostetic arm you see here. Many people actually prefer automail to regular bodies, augmenting anything and everything. The second science, called the 'Great Art', is… Alchemy."

Minister Remington was the first to recover. "But alchemy doesn't exist!"

"Neither do devils," Edward shot back, "And yet I'm standing in the same room with one." He gestured to Chrno, who looked shocked at being found out, having gone to great lengths to cover his ears.

Remington tried another tack. "It was found to be an unviable science and abandoned centuries ago."

Edward shrugged.

Remington, sensing blood in the water, pressed his advantage. "Besides, I've never heard of you or automail.'"

"But I have," a new voice said. Everyone turned. Standing in the doorway was the Elder, who made special weapons for the exorcists at Mary Magdalene, and quite possibly _the_ most perverted old man in New York. He eyed Edward. "You said you were Edward Elric, correct?"

Edward nodded in assent.

"I've read about you. Brilliant, headstrong young man who, after losing his arm in an accident during the War," he eyed the younger man's shiny appendage, "made himself a new one out of bits of scrap metal. Graduated Machinist's College at the age of 14, and one of the world's leading experts on machines." The old man stepped into the room and extended his hand, which Edward carefully shook with his metal arm.

Meanwhile, Rosette's mind was spinning. _He made that arm by himself?_ She wasn't sure whether she was more impressed by his genius or by his strength of will. Rosette was brought back to Earth with a soft bump by the sound of him talking.

"…You have to help me." He finished, looking around the room. "Someone is after me. Or rather, _this._" He lifted his right arm again and, with his left, pulled a latch back. His forearm slid open, revealing a container of red liquid.

Rosette stared. "What is it?" reaching out to touch it. The Elder stayed her hand.

"It's called Red Water." Edward said. He held it aloft for everyone to see. "It's the closest I've been able to come to performing alchemy.

"As I told you, someone is after this. I've notified the authorities, but they can't do anything about it. When they investigate, it disappears. Then I heard about your Order. I don't believe in God, but I do know this; You're my only chance. I need you to protect me and the Water, at least until I can get home. If I can make it there, then I'll be safe. But, if the demon gets hold of this much Red Water, it could destroy the world." He looked at them defiantly.

Sister Kate, who had been taking this all in, finally spoke up. She looked furious. "What! _Why_ would you made something capable of putting the entire _world_ in jeopardy?" she spluttered in her rage. "The Order is having a hard enough time dealing with the devils now, without having to worry about something like that! And now you want us to protect you? Get home yourself, you- you-!"

Edward took a step towards her. "_Listen_, you hag-" His right arm began to give off a pinkish glow. He looked at it, and then up. The Clock Seal hanging around Rosette's neck was also glowing, in blue hues. When Edward spoke again, it was quiet with awe. "I can't go home yet," he said, looking at the Seal, "Because the device is not yet complete. I have the energy, but I still need the _means_ in which to use it- like needing a car when you have a tank of petrol. I need a chrono-accelerator, something that will excite the chroniton particles within the Water, allowing me to go home.

"In other words," he said, pointing to the object hanging around Rosette's neck, "I need _that._"

Rosette's hand went protectively towards the Seal- what he called a _chrono-accerelator_- that had been around her throat ever since she met Chrno.

The Seal, in a way, kept them both alive. Rosette was Chrno's Contractor- a human that made a deal with a devil: The devil would be able to siphon the human's life-force for energy, while the devil would serve the human. When the Seal was unlocked, his full powers were released and the soul-siphoning increased greatly to meet with the energy demands. For this reason it was only unlocked after much thought, and only for short periods of time. So giving it to a complete stranger was out of the question.

"Why do you need this?" she asked, her hand still grasped around it.

"Why don't you build one yourself then? The Elder said you were a genius!" Chrno exclaimed from the other side of the room. The old man looked suddenly uncomfortable.

Edward slammed his fist down on the desk with a resounding _crack._ He was beginning to lose his patience. "Don't you think I _tried_ that! If it were possible, I wouldn't be here, trying to convince you tha-"

Suddenly, from out in the hall a floorboard squeaked, and in the next instant several things happened so quickly they seemed to be at the same time.

The devil, sensing he was made, dropped the invisibility spell in order to focus his energies and leapt at Edward, knocking the Elder to the floor. Meanwhile, Edward used the distraction to reach out with his right hand and grab the Seal, with Rosette's hand still around it.

There was a flash of light, and all three- the devil, the nun and the crackpot scientist- were gone.

End of Revised Chapter 1. I know it was only chapters 1 and 2 together with a few minor changes, but I have bigger plans. Trust me.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The world was spinning. At least, that's what Rosette thought when she first opened her eyes. Then she came to another realization: She was going to throw up. Immediately.

After finishing _that_ little pleasantry, she shielded her eyes from the glare of the midday sun and looked around at her surroundings-or lack thereof. She was obviously not in Sister Kate's office, unless New York was turned into a desert in her absence. She shuddered at the thought, and tried to remember what had happened-

_(A devil leaping at the stranger, him grabbing the Seal-)_

But it was all a jumbled mess. Yellow and blue lights, the sensation of flying, the falling… She shook her head. It would sort itself out. In the meantime, she'd have to find out where she was and how she could get back home. And the only person she knew who could do this was-

She looked around. Her kidnapper/saviour, Edward, was lying flat on his back a little ways away, evidently just as sick as she had been. She looked away as he was reacquainted with his breakfast.

When he was done, she called to him. "So, is this your home, then?" _Because if it is_, she added silently,_ I want you to get me back to MY home!_

Edward looked up, startled. "What are _you _doing here?" he asked in bewilderment. "You should be back at the convent!"

Rosette saw red. Before he could think of anything else to say, she crossed the distance that separated them and had him in a chokehold.

"_You're damn right I should be back at the convent!_" She screamed at him. "And I'd like to go back to it! So give me the Red Water, or whatever you called it, so I can go home-" Her eyes widened and she let Edward go, who flopped to the ground gasping for air. _The Clock Seal_. The last time she had seen the Seal, it had been around her neck. It had been wrapped tightly in Edward's metal fist as he fought the devil-

_And now it wasn't there anymore._

She was stranded in the desert, alongside a man who claimed to be a student of an unorthodox branch of science, with no way home, a devil on the loose and no weapon.

It was just _not_ her day.

"W-water…" Rosette croaked out. After frantically searching around the area where they had landed (that's they only word Rosette could think of for describing it, even though she hadn't been conscious for the actual arrival) for an hour, they had decided it would be in their best interests to look for signs of civilization before they died of heat stroke or dehydration, both of which were likely in the unrelenting desert sun. Deciding that North was the most likely direction in which there might be an encampment, or at least a water supply in this hellish place, that was the direction they had set off in.

That had been hours ago.

Now they were overheated, tired, hungry, and most of all, thirsty. Rosette would have gladly taken a vow of silence if it meant she got a glass of cool water. She was silently cursing the heavy boots she was wearing, and Edward had taken off his red coat and tied it into a sort of turban to keep the sweat from running into his eyes.

"Don't talk about water," Edward said snappishly from the top of a sand dune up ahead of her. "It'll only make you thirstier."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Rosette replied sarcastically from on the rising slope. It was too hot to work up a proper lather, a fact Edward should have thanked his lucky stars for. "Y'know, if you had told us that you lived in Nevada-"

Edward cursed in German. "This isn't Nevada!" he yelled, turning to meet her gaze. "The Red Water was designed to send me through an inter-dimensional portal-"

"A _what?"_

Edward tried to explain. "An interdimensional portal- you know, a nexus?" Rosette looked at him blankly. He sighed.

"The theory goes that there are millions of Earths that exist in the same time and space, but in different dimensions. My home is one of those dimensions, which exist in- parallel, is it? Things existing side by side?- with yours, and there are ways of going from one to another, like going from room to room in a house. That was what I was trying to accomplish." He looked at her almost pityingly. "What I'm trying to say is; that we are not in your world any longer.

Suddenly, Rosette felt as cold as if she had spent the night in the icebox, a feeling the overbearing sun didn't even touch. If they had been in Nevada, fine. It was only a couple days' train ride away from New York, and she would have been safe for the interim. Even if it had been in some far-off place like Africa or Turkey, she could have arranged a plane ride back to the Order, albeit with a little difficulty. But not even on Earth? That was impossible!

_Wasn't it?_

Rosette didn't know. What she did know was this: she was going to kill the man who had brought her here, take his arm, and try to find the Clock Seal so she could go home. She didn't care if she went to Hell for it; she was already here, and as long as she got to find Joshua and kill Aion before she returned, she could care less about coming back.

With a savage snarl, she leaped at a startled Edward, tackling him and send them both rolling down the other side of the sand dune, kicking, biting, clawing and grabbing at the other on the way down.

Rosette was just about to gouge out his eyeball when they landed at the bottom of the sand dune with a thud, jarring both of them. Gasping and panting they struggled to their feet, the side of Rosette's mouth bleeding where her canines had scraped the inside of her cheek and there was a cut above Edward's left eye. He was holding his side from where she had tackled him, and he did not look in very good shape. The two combatants circled each other, trying to keep the distance between them the same while gauging the other's strength and abilities. Edward went first, moving with a sudden, jerky grace that bespoke of a man who has grown quite a lot in a short amount of time yet was extremely agile when he was smaller. He went in for a punch to Rosette's solar plexus, which was blocked by the nun's forearm. Unfortunately, metal is stronger than bone, as Rosette found out when she heard a sickening _crack_ as the bones snapped like toothpicks.

Screaming from the white-hot pain lancing up her arm, she pulled back her good arm and was about to drive it into his nose when something met the back of her skull and the world went suddenly black.

For the second time that day, Rosette woke up to a crushing headache. However, as events rushed back into her frazzled mind, she sat up like a shot, and was rewarded with her head feeling like it had met with a freight train.

After recovering slightly from her stupidity, she saw that she was in a bed in a darkened room, probably to lessen the effects of the headache. As she began to check for any injuries, she felt tenser bandages wrapped around her forehead and her left arm in a sling. Feeling confident she could stand on her own two feet, she moved the covers to free her feet.

Just then she felt something frighteningly like a gun barrel at her temple. She heard a voice:

"Move and it'll kill you."

_There was a flash of light, and all three- the devil, the nun and the crackpot scientist- were gone._

"ROSETTE!" Chrno screamed and with his arms outstretched, launched himself at the space that she had occupied a scant second before, closing his embrace on air and crashing to the ground, where he began to frantically claw at the floor as if thinking the devil had taken them to Hell.

It took the remaining figures in the office a moment to react. But when they had gathered their wits, the lull was but a memory.

"Elder!" Sister Kate cried, coming around her desk to the aid of the battered weapons maker. He had landed on his head, not an injury to be taken lightly for a man of his vintage. Sister Kate looked around frantically, eyes finally coming to rest on Father Remington. "Father!" she called. Remington's face, still lit with the shock and horror from the disappearing trio, turned slowly towards her. He stared at her with a blank look in his eyes, as though not comprehending what was going on. "_Father Remington!_" Sister Kate shouted, louder now. He could have shell shock on his own time. Right now, they had emergencies on their hands. Remington snapped out of his funk. "Father, get the medic sisters here now! The Elder needs professional attention!"

Remington, glad to have something to do flew off in the direction of the infirmary. Chrno, no longer scratching at the ground, was sobbing quietly where Rosette had last been before the flash.

Sister Kate's heart went out to him. It didn't take a genius to see that there was a bond between the Sinner Chrno and Sister Rosette Christopher, something that went far deeper than being allies in a cause or even being close friends. It was something Sister Kate now wished she had been able to experience before she joined the Church, young and impetuous as she had been. She realized she was not concentrating on the task at hand and mentally scolded herself for putting her mind on personal matters when there was a situation, but was interrupted by three nun-nurses and a stretcher that rushed into the room to help the Elder.

Sister Kate had just helped getting him onto the stretcher when from behind her came the most horrible sound she had ever heard in her life. She and everyone else in the room whirled around, but they were unprepared for what greeted their eyes.

Still sitting on the ground, with his legs askew, was Chrno, face raised to the sky, wailing. But it was unlike any sound she could compare it to- high-pitched and screechy, yet around the screech was a lower, softer tone. Tears flowed freely down the small devil's cheeks.

Sister Kate was flabbergasted, but she knew that if he did not stop that racket soon, her head would explode. So she did something that shocked no one more than herself; she kneeled beside Chrno and hugged him close to her, allowing him to vent his grief while muffling the noise. She put one hand on the back of his head and the other one at the top of his spine, feeling the shudders of his body as he wept.

Remington stood back and smiled. Then he turned around and motioned for the sisters to get the old man to the infirmary, where he would get looked after. Following the girls outside of the office, he turned around for one last glance over his shoulder at the unlikely scene; the age-old devil, part of the Revolution of Pandemonium, crying into the robes of a young Mother Superior, part of a religious order sworn to exterminate all devils on Earth and send them back to the fiery pits from whence they came.

Remington smiled and shut the doors behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Eden?" Edward asked groggily. He was still trying to recover from the dehydration. Instead of answering, the man

_(Vash)_

got up and went over to

_(His name is Vash the Stampede)_

the other side of the room, where Edward now noticed heavy curtains hanging. Vash pulled them open, showing a picture Edward did not expect in the least when his eyes adjusted to the influx of light.

_Trees._ Edward saw a literal forest, hundreds of trees that looked to be centuries old if their size and girth were to be believed. But Edward knew that was impossible- had he not wandered through the desert four hours along with- what's-her-name; something like Roze, he knew that much. Rose, Rosie, Ro-

_("ROSETTE!")_

_Rosette._ Now he remembered; he had heard the name screamed out just before they had gone. He clutched his side, where the little bitch had tackled him and stared out into the seemingly endless sea of green. He realized that Vash had been talking to him, and was now looking at him expectantly. "Sorry?" he asked.

As patient as the hills, Edward's caregiver repeated his question. "I said, since my brother's taking care of your friend, are you hungry? We'll have to go into the Mess hall, but we can get you something to eat."

Edward's stomach growled at the mention of food; he had forgotten that the tea he had had at the convent had been the only thing in his belly for the past several hours, perhaps longer now. He rummaged around in his pockets until he found what he was looking for- a pocket watch with a raised dragon rampant on the front. Clicking it open, he saw that it was past sunset, around nine thirty at night. When he had been at the convent, it had been around eleven in the morning. He looked outside again- it could have passed for noon. He shrugged. _'Maybe the days are longer here,' _he thought.

Edward closed the watch and looked up at the man. When he had been taken care of before, first by Auntie Pinako after the failed transmutation of his mother, and later Winry after all the times he had wrecked his right arm, they always had this non-assuming look on their faces, as if they were willing to wait till the Wastes froze over for him to recover. Even when Winry moaned about the condition of his automail and how he always got into situations where it was mangled, mutilated, or outright demolished, the same look was in her eyes; and he knew she was only complaining so loudly because she was relieved it had been his metal arm, and not him, that had gotten destroyed.

The man, Vash the Stampede, had the same look about him- that he was willing to go at Edward's pace of recovery and would not try to guilt or cajole him into trying to heal faster so he could leave. It was the first feeling of home he had experienced in over 10 years.

"Yes, please," was all he managed to say without choking up.

"Eden?" Rosette asked the man called Knives. He nodded.

"My brother has this fascination with Earth, you see. One day he was poking around the Ship's computer and came across this old article about some place called Eden and it being a paradise. So when we established the Settlement, he was bound and bent it was going to be called Eden." He gestured again to his spent body. "In this condition I can't fight him, so I let it go."

Now Rosette was even _more_ confused. _'Ship? What kind of a ship- a boat, a plane, maybe even a car?' _She decided to file it away for a later time.

"Where exactly _is _here?" Rosette asked.

Again that studying look, as if mentally debating whether to impart her with such knowledge. This time it seemed the odds were not in her favour, as he gave a kind of shake of his head, almost as if throwing off the notion of telling her.

Out loud, he said, "Ready for dinner?"

"Halt! Who the Waste're you?" the Red Rogue sentry called to the stranger. There had been some activity from their main rivals, the Wild Cards, in the area recently, and the Red Rogue leader wasn't taking any chances of an invasion of their hideout by them, and so had posted guards up every day and night. It was just his luck that he'd pulled the short straw and got stuck with night duty.

When the man was only 500 yars away and still coming towards him, the sentry's grip on his rifle tightened. He was cold, he was hungry, and he was tired, but he was no mean shot. Maybe the guy was deaf; or maybe he had a death wish. Either way, he'd had his warning. Like the Big Boss had said, sitting surrounded by floozies and spineless yes-men, that habitual shark's grin once again on his face: "Warn 'em once, so we can tell the Calvary if they investigate we played by the book.

"After that, they're fair game."

The sentry got into a shooter's stance: legs in a steady A-frame position, the butt of the rifle secure against his shoulder, right hand on the reloading chamber, left on the on the sloping underside of the gun, index finger on the on the trigger, eye on the scope, lining up the target with the crosshairs. Just as his finger pressed the trigger, his eye registered that the target had disappeared.

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground and bleeding like a stuck pig from a bullet wound in his stomach. The thing was, _the other guy didn't have a gun._ He knew that as plainly as he could see the smirking face above him, pointing the same rifle he had had in his hands a second earlier, barrel still smoking, down at his fallen form.

The sentry knew he was going to die, and so asked one question; "Who the Waste're you?" His murderer crouched down, casually glancing over his body as if the man were but road kill, running his fingers through his straw-like hair, world-weary golden eyes gleaming. He rummaged through the pockets of the blood-red overcoat he wore until he found what he was looking for; a pocket watch with a raised dragon rampant on the front. Clicking it open, he looked at it while he spoke, in a voice that sounded like it had just matured out of adolescence but it sent chills down the sentry's spine.

"My name is Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist." The killer whispered. "Not that it matters much to you, because your time in this hell is almost over." So saying, he tucked the watch into the doomed man's pocket and straightened. Turning around, he began to walk away towards the desert. He stopped. "However," slowly he spun around again to face the sentry, raising the rifle as he did so, "that means that your time in the next Hell is just about to begin."

Edward laughed as he emptied the rest of the gun's contents into the prone man's form, garnering satisfaction from each agonizing twitch and jerk of the body and the lifeblood that seeped from it, so dark in the cold moonlight, slaking the desert's thirst with crimson water. He threw the spent gun aside and flexed his metal right hand. From the corner of his eye, he spotted movement from the hideout.

Another guard had obviously heard the noise and come to see what the commotion was. When he saw his comrade, lying dead in a pool of his own blood, he fled back into the hideout. Edward watched the man run inside, presumably to alert his boss, and smirked a little. His job here was done.

Whistling a tune, he walked back out into the night desert and disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"I'm worried about him," the tall nun said to the man standing beside her. She was referring to the devil on the fountain in the courtyard below her office, looking worried and morose. "He hasn't eaten or slept in the days since the attack, and he's looking a lot worse for the wear- I don't think he can last much longer." Sister Kate sighed and moved away from the window. Remington stayed and looked out the window at Chrno, whom either didn't realize or didn't care he was being watched.

Sister Kate sat down heavily in her chair and took off her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose. One of the Sisters had brought in the teacart and had set it by her desk, so she poured herself and Remington each a cup of the steaming brew. The heady aroma filled the room as she did so, calling forth memories of happier, less confusing times. Remington came away from the window to accept his cup and stood by the side of the desk, sipping gingerly at the hot liquid. The old friends were silent for a moment.

"It's been three days," Sister Kate finally said, breaking the silence. "Three days, and not a trace of Sister Rosette, that scientist nor the devil that attacked them are to be found!" She put down the drained cup, not bothering to pour herself another and buried her face in her hands. "We've scoured Manhattan and every other major city in the United States, and we came up empty handed. Oh, Remington," she asked, turning in her chair to look at the tall blond man beside her, "What are we going to do?"

Remington smiled and refilled both their cups. "We don't worry too much about it," he said reassuringly, putting her tea in front of her. He crouched down till they were about eye level. "After all, this isn't any of the other Sisters in this convent. It's Rosette Christopher, who can have a building fall on her and still walk out just fine, and who's as stubborn as an old mule and twice as likely to bite. If there's anyone you should worry about," he added with a sudden chuckle, "It's that Elric fellow, the one who called himself an 'alchemist.' If Rosette hasn't given him a sound thumping yet, she will." He reached down, surprising himself as much as Sister Kate as he took her hand and put it both of his. "Don't worry," he said gently. "You'll be reprimanding her in this office before you know it."

Tears filled Sister Kate's eyes as she stood up suddenly and hugged herself to his chest. Only then did she allow her silent tears to turn into wracking sobs. "Oh, Remington," she moaned between them, "I d-don't know how to _handle_ this!" She cried into his chest.

Remington put an arm around to comfort her, as she had done with Chrno when Rosette had disappeared, closing his eyes in grief. He just hoped he had sounded a lot more confident then he felt. While he had enormous faith in the girl, the current situation might prove too much for even Rosette to handle.

"Um," said a voice from the doorway, "Excuse me, Sister Kate? Minister Remington?" They both looked up. Standing in the doorway were three of Rosette's fellow nuns and closest things that came to female friends in the convent, Sisters Mary, Claire and Anna. They looked extremely embarrassed to be interrupting the tender moment between the two, but they evidently had something important to tell them.

A few minutes later Sister Kate (determinedly looking at the floor as she walked, face as red as a fire truck), Minister Remington (looking eerily calm) and Chrno were following the head nurse through the infirmary to the Elder's bed. "He just regained consciousness about an hour ago," the stout nurse was explaining to them as they walked between the rows of beds. Only a few of them were taken, and only one had the curtain drawn- the Elder's. "He's asked to see you three specifically, but please keep in mind that he is recovering from a serious blow to the head resulting in a concussion, so I want you to keep your visit short- and whatever you do, don't excite him!" She looked at Sister Kate with a critical eye. "You know, to that end we may have to get you some pants…" Seeing the look on the head nun, she shrugged. "Or you can stand outside the curtain. Your choice." Sister Kate took the latter option.

Remington and Chrno passed through the fabric barrier of the curtain and into the Elder's temporary home. There was a young attendant there as well, whom old man was trying to frisk as if his life depended on it. Once he saw the two men however, he quieted down almost at once. The attendant shot them a grateful look, and Remington found himself wondering if she was ready to give the Chief Weapons Maker a second concussion as she hurried out of the cramped space.

"The girls visited me earlier and told me what had happened just when I got knocked out." The bedridden man said. "The devil moved so fast, I didn't even know what hit me till they told me. However, they wouldn't say what happened afterwards to Rosette and that Elric boy." He chuckled. "I suspect it might have something to do with the way I trying to grab their breasts- they were more than happy to grab you for me," he stated, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Remington wondered, and not for the first time, whether the old man's perversity wasn't just to hide his brilliant actions.

Chrno remained silent as Remington filled him in on the situation. His thoughts were on his own failings of that morning. His failure to detect the devil. His failure to stop it before it disappeared. But most of all, his failure to protect Rosette. It was the guilt from that shortcoming that preyed on his mind the worst

_("ROSETTE!")_

(Flash of light and then all three- the devil, the nun and the crackpot scientist-

were gone)

("ROSETTE")

and most often.

The other two men had evidently finished their conversation, as Chrno dimly heard the Elder say he wanted to talk to him privately. Nodding, Remington turned and exited the curtain. While the thin veil was by no means soundproof, it was the gesture that counted.

The Elder moved into a sitting position on the bed and turned his goggled gaze upon the little devil. He was staring straight ahead at nothing, lost in his own world, no doubt tortured by guilt at having failed his partner when she needed him most. He motioned for Chrno to sit down on the chair beside the bed, which he did without a word, still in his own world.

The Elder tried to cheer him up. "Hey, it wasn't your fault that the-"

"Yes, it was!" Chrno said suddenly, vehemently. He was surprised at the outburst, but the feelings he had dammed up were now pouring out, and there was nothing he could do to stop them. "I was so preoccupied that I didn't even do my usual sweep of the compound to check for devils! In fact, if it wasn't for me, they could put up a Cruciform Barrier around the entire place, sealing it off from everything unholy. But because I'm a devil and I live here, that option isn't open." Tears were streaming down his face once more- he hadn't cried in sixty years, since the Magdalene had given him her energy when Aion had broken off his horns so he could survive. And for the past three days he was like a tap- on and off constantly.

Suddenly, he felt a hard slap that rocked his head to the side. When he recovered from the shock, he put a hand to the stinging spot on his cheek where the bow had landed and looked at the Elder in confusion.

The old man still had his arm in the carry-through position from the slap. For the first time that Chrno could remember, the Elder looked at him angrily. "Don't be absurd!" he growled. Seeing that he had Chrno's attention, he finally brought down his hand (and subsequently the threat of another slap) to his lap. "First off, the reason we don't have a giant Cruciform Barrier around the complex isn't because of _you_, dear boy. Trust me, if it was because of that, the High Muck-a-Mucks on the Council would have you live in a shack outside of it! Do you realize how much energy it would take to build, and then maintain, such a barrier? It's far easier to just to make sure everyone in the place has a gun loaded with Holy Ammunition. Secondly, neither you, nor Sister Kate, nor Minister Remington, nor even Rosette herself could've stopped the devil. It was just too fast. It ran right into _me,_ and all I saw was a blur a second before everything went black.

"And thirdly, instead of moping about, as I was told you've been doing for the past three days, why aren't you looking for her?"

Chrno felt as if God Himself had just put a Revelation into his skull. _'Of course,' _he thought, _'why didn't _I_ think of that?'_ Immediately, though, he saw a problem with that course of action. "I can't," he said, dejectedly. "Rosette's not on Earth anymore- I have no idea where she's gone."

"_Eh?_" Remington and Sister Kate said in unison, whipping back the curtain and coming inside. While they hadn't been actively listening to the conversation, they couldn't help but hear the last bit. "What do you mean, 'she's not on Earth?'" Sister Kate demanded. Chrno looked taken aback.

"Chrno," Remington asked suddenly, putting a claming hand on Sister Kate's shoulder, "you don't mean she's in Pandemonium, do you?"

The devil shook his head. "No. I don't know where they went, but it's definitely not Pandemonium. I would've known." He shuddered at the thought of

(his Rosette)

Rosette being trapped in that hellish home of all devils.

Sister Kate had seemingly calmed herself enough not to jump on Chrno, but that was about it. "What do you mean, 'she's not on Earth?'" she asked again.

Chrno sighed. She was _not_ going to like the explanation he was about to give her. "Okay, let's start off with the basics- as we know, souls are made up of different bits and pieces of previous souls that flow through the Astral Line, the conduit of all spiritual power. We also know that devils exist in another dimension called Pandemonium. Now, how do you think devil's get from there to here?" He asked.

"Devils collect Astral energy in their horns to give them power, and once they are strong enough they can pass through the Gate of Knowledge and come to Earth." Remington stated, easily following Chrno's explanation.

Sister Kate only looked more lost. "I'm sorry, 'Gate of Knowledge?'" she asked.

"When Adam and Eve partook in the Fruit of Knowledge, they committed the first Sin. From that Sin sprung forth desire, and from _evil_ desire came Pandemonium. The Gate of Knowledge was created to prevent the denizens of Pandemonium- devils- from overtaking Earth, and afterwards Heaven." Chrno explained. He was not surprised the head nun did not know this particular piece of religious knowledge- it wasn't generally known to mortals. "However, since they could not totally block off Pandemonium because Humans cannot totally destroy desire, devils do get through. Not near as many as if there was no Gate, but enough.

"Now, that's as far as we know: that there are three worlds- Heaven, Earth, and Pandemonium, and all three are connected by the Astral Line, while Pandemonium is partially blocked off by the Gate of Knowledge. However, when the Red Water that the stranger carried came in contact with the Clock Seal, which transforms Rosette's Astral energy into usable energy for me, it allowed them to go through the Gate, but they didn't end up in Pandemonium. And since the Gate doesn't go between Heaven and Earth as well, that leaves only one possibility- that they somehow managed to go to somewhere _else_- probably another Earth or its equivalent, through the Gate."

Sister Kate looked stunned and sort of fell into a chair on the opposite side of the Elder. Chrno could sympathize with her- it was a lot to take in all at once. He turned back to the Elder. "So, as you can see, it would take a massive amount of Astral energy to get through the Gate, even if I could locate her, which I can't."

The Elder laughed. Everyone looked at him oddly, thinking the blow to the head had done him more harm than they had originally thought. "Oh, this is too perfect. Absolutely _too perfect._" He looked at Chrno. "Do you have anything of Rosette's- anything at all? A hairbrush, a photograph- anything?"

Puzzled, the devil thought for a moment. "Well…" his mind seized on something. "The bow!" he pulled up the end of his long purple braid, and on the end of it was a large yellow bow. "Rosette put this on me herself when she was younger. Why do you need it?" He asked.

The Elder grinned. "D'you remember that time a couple weeks back when Rosette lost the Spirit bullet and I made that locator device to get it back?" The device in question was an odd little portable box with two antennas and many dials and knobs. It located things by the 'tug' the object- or person- gave on the Astral Line. Since everyone's 'tug' is unique in variance, power and volume, the device needed only a reference point to match the frequency with the person in question.

Chrno nodded. He thought he saw the Elder's plan. "But Elder, I'd still need a massive amount of Astral energy to get through the Gate-"

The Elder held up a hand to silence him, reaching down and pulling up a briefcase that had gone unnoticed on the floor beside his bed. "Y'know, I was saving these as a present to Rosette for her birthday- stupid, really. I should've given them to you as soon as I had finished- but oh well…" he muttered to himself. Remington and Sister Kate looked at each other anxiously. Chrno, however, was staring at the briefcase. There was something familiar in there, something he couldn't quite place…

The Elder undid the latches and opened the briefcase facing Chrno. He gasped in awe at what lay snug in the cotton batting of the case.

_Devil horns._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"So, why were you in the middle of the desert so unprepared?" Vash asked Edward after serving him some soup and a sandwich, and sitting down in the chair across from him. Edward, who had attacked the food gratefully, choked at the unexpected question. Once he had gulped some water down and recovered a bit, he looked at Vash. Even though Edward trusted him (he had, after all, saved them), he knew that the truth would be too outrageous for the tall man to believe, and they'd probably be kicked out of the house. Considering they were in the middle of the desert with nowhere else to go, that was a very bad thing.

"W-what do you mean?" he asked, frantically thinking of a plausible-sounding story. Hopefully he'd be able to find Rosette and tell her the plan before she said anything to revealing to Vash's brother, who was evidently taking care of her.

Vash looked at him oddly. "Well, you were out when the suns are at their zenith, without hat, transportation, or provisions. For all intents and purposes, it was almost like… like- well, like you had popped out of nowhere into the desert."

Edward laughed, which sounded forced even to his ears. "Yeah, that's right… popped out of nowhere… that's a… good one." _'Jeez, this guy's _sharp,_'_ he thought. _'My only refuge is that he doesn't know how sharp he _is_.'_

Vash raised an eyebrow. "_Plus_, as a bonus of weirdness, you didn't flip out when I said my name was Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon. I know this sounds egotistical, but I thought that _everyone_ on this planet had heard of me."

Edward's frantic brain finally seized on something. "Uh- we're from a ways off. A _long_ ways off. And well, we don't get much news from- way out here, so that's why we've never heard of you. Sister Rosette was charged with- uh..." Edward searched for the word- "a mission! Yes, she was to bring a very important item to the chapel. I was accompanying the good Sister so she wouldn't be- accosted! That's the word, 'accosted'. By bandits and stuff. Anyway, we ran out of food and water and then you came to our rescue!" Edward finished his babbling, looking at the man in front of him to see if he bought it.

Vash looked at him curiously, thenleaned back in his chair and looked towards the ceiling of the mess hall, silent for a moment.

The mess hall's name was misleading- it was neither a mess, nor a hall. Rather, it was more like an enlarged kitchen- with a stove alongside one wall, a washing basin, an island counter with pots and pans hanging from a rack suspended by chains over it in the middle of the floor by the washing basin and stove, an icebox for meat, a vegetable bin, a hearth with a small fire in it, and the long dining table where they were currently sitting, all immaculate and dust-free. The only reason Edward could think of as to why it was called that was a large wooden plaque situated above the door that read "Mess Hall".

"So, let me get this straight," the spiky blonde said slowly. "You're from somewhere that's far, far away from the rest of civilization, you were accompanying the nun as protection from said far away place to somewhere around here, when you ran out of provisions and were left wandering the desert, lost, alone and confused." Vash looked at him. "I didn't leave anything out, did I?"

"Only the part about the robbery," said a female voice from under the "Mess Hall" sign behind him.

There stood Rosette, behind a man in a wheelchair, who was probably the brother Vash had mentioned, determinedly not looking at the alchemist. Edward noticed the brother had a metal arm as well, his left, just like Vash. Edward felt almost _normal_, as Rosette was the only one in the room with all of her original appendages. The nun sidestepped the chair to walk towards the table. "There was a- bandit that attacked us, and in the confusion _he_-" at this, she shot the alchemist a withering glare- "lost the item he was supposed to be guarding.." Edward suspected that she was only _just_ managing to restrain herself from resuming their earlier scuffle, but he wasn't too concerned about it- at the moment it , was more important that their host believe them. She was obviously smart enough to realize they needed a cover story, and had just supported his bungled version beautifully.

Vash turned and stood up. Suddenly he was no longer the sauve saviour Edward had seen; now he was a drooling pervert. "Hi, I'm Vash," he said, his eyes large and glistening, trying to slip an arm around her waist, the other hand coming dangerously close to her chest.

Edward was shocked; he had seemed so calm, so in-control, even when Edward was relating his admittedly bizarre story to him, and now here he was, acting like an idiot because of a girl! He shook his head. No wonder his brother took over the care of Rosette- Vash evidently couldn't handle it.

Rosette had been told by the other sisters- most notably Anna, Claire and Mary- that if a guy got to first base, he'd try for second. If he got to second, he would undoubtedly go for third. And when he got third, he'd try his luck at a home run. Rosette was determined that this guy, whether he saved her life or not, was going to strike out long before then, even if she had to _knock_ him out. Which is exactly what she did when his hand made contact.

From behind her, she could hear a dry chuckle of approval from Knives.

"Ow." Vash moaned, cold cloth to his forehead. It had taken him a little over an hour to recover from the devastating blow Rosette had landed on him; a half-twist double-spiral with middle-knuckle extended, right to the temple. Rosette later admitted she was impressed; usually when she hit something with one of her specials, they stayed down indefinitely. Of course, all that meant was that next time she would hit harder. And she made sure Vash was aware of her new policy, to which he readily swore to respect.

While he had been out cold on the floor (as no one had thought or bothered to move him- they figured he deserved it), Rosette had asked Knives (the seemingly more rational of the two) again where they were. This time, she got a response.

"Underground," was all he would say. She got a sense that, though she had impressed him by punching out Vash, she still had a long way to go to gain his trust. Which she figured was only fair, but she would feel a lot better knowing where they were situated. Edward had stayed silent the whole time, as if afraid she would do the same thing to him, only worse. After all, if that was how she acted when a guy touched her in the wrong place, how much damage did she deal out if you broke her _arm? _Edward was sure that was one piece of information he could live without.

Instead, he had occupied himself as to where the devil had gone. It was obviously still alive, because both he and the Sister were,

_(fighting for his life in a sea of yellow and blue-)_

and devils were hardier than humans.

_(yellow eyes glowing with greed- trying to kill him-)_

Edward stopped trying to remember. The memories, and nightmares, would come of their own accord, in their own time. Right now he decided to try to preoccupy himself. "So, why do you guys live underground in the middle of a desert?" he asked the brothers.

All he got was a blank stare from Vash and a guarded look from Knives, which he took as answer enough.

For now.

_Inside the briefcase were devil's Horns._

The reactions to the unholy artifacts were varied. Sister Kate took a sharp intake of breath and sat up straight like a bolt, automatically crossing herself. Minister Remington's hand strayed to the hilt of his sword, not drawing it but keeping it handy if the need arose.

Chrno merely stared at them. Horns to devils were like lungs to humans- both collected a vital resource for the body to use to sustain itself, and if either the lungs or Horns were lost, their owner was a dead man. Chrno had lost his Horns nearly sixty years before and relied upon Rosette to sustain him with her life force, known as Astral energy, transferred through the Clock Seal. Seeing a pair here, not worn by any devil, ignited a longing -to be able to use his old powers as he wished without worrying about the drain on Rosette- that was so strong he almost snatched them right there.

The crafty inventor saw the look in his eye. As Chrno picked them up, the Elder spoke. "You remember the devil that attacked here and used the Spirit bullet Rosette had lost to make itself more powerful? Well, it got me thinking. I figured that if Spirit had that kind of effect on a devil with its horns intact, what would it do it to you? So then I came up with _these._" Taking the Horns from Chrno, he turned them upside-down so that they were looking at their bases. The Horns were mounted on magnetic plates, so as to attach to the metal plates covering the places where his original Horns had been so as not to require them to be surgically placed into his skull. In the middle of each base was a hole, about the diameter of a dime.

The Elder reached into his lab coat's side pocket and pulled out a small silver object. He held it up to catch the light, and Chrno saw it to be a bullet, the kind that the Magdalene Order used. He turned it over and inserted it headfirst into the hole and pushed a small knob on the side of the base, closing the hole, saying, "If it wasn't for these, all the Horns would be good for are decorations." Instantly a soft humming could be heard. The Elder proceeded to do the same to the other Horn, saying, "As you know, devil Horns are designed to gather Astral energy and feed it directly into the devils body. However, since these horns attach to a secondary surface rather than underneath your skin, they need to have their own power sources. Since the Spirit bullets are made up of small puffs of Astral energy and spells, they are act as a kind of Astral battery, powering up the Horns for short bursts of time. Once the energy has been used up, the bullet disintegrates and you can pull off the Horns to put in more bullets. I wouldn't put in more than one bullet in each horn at a time, and even under strenuous circumstances more than two at a time in each." He held them out to Chrno. "Go ahead my boy, try them on!" he urged.

Chrno took them, feeling the warm, reassuring weights in his hands. Now that he had gotten over the initial shock, he studied them and saw them to be works of art- where his original Horns had merely been shards of bone sticking straight back from his skull behind the ears, these were truly elegant: small spirals curving up, around and outwards like a ram's horns, streaked with silver runes and designs. He looked up at his audience. Sister Kate too had calmed down and was staring at him, as if realizing the very things that repulsed her may be the only way to get Rosette back. Minister Remington did not look so convinced, and scowled disapprovingly at the Horns and the one holding them, recalling an old memory about what happened the _last _time Chrno had been in possession of his Horns. And the Elder merely sat there, waiting patiently.

Chrno raised the Horns to the sides of his head, feeling the powerful magnets latch onto the metal coverings of the gaping holes from where his old Horns had been, wincing as they came down on his head, one after another, _crash, crash._

He instantly felt different. Stronger. Not for sixty years had he felt this good. He bet if he really tried, he could move mountains. He heard applauding from behind him. He turned, and standing there in the threshold of the small curtained-off area stood Mary, Anna and Claire, clapping as though they had just seen a Broadway performance.

"Oh Chrno," Claire sighed, "They really look nice on you!"

"Yeah," Mary chimed in. She seemed lost for anything else and was staring at Chrno's head.

"I bet they make you strong as an ox!" Anna gushed, flexing her own muscles to demonstrate.

"Er, thanks…" Chrno said awkwardly. Fortunately, he didn't get the chance to say anything else, as a certain lecherous old man jumped out of his bed squealing, "Oh goody! They sent my medicine, and in six lovely large jugs!"

As the girls ran off and Remington stopped the Elder from going outside the curtain by grabbing him by the shoulders and flinging him bodily back on to the bed, Chrno heaved a sigh of relief and mouthed the words, "Thank you," silently to him. The old man responded with a wink. Or at least the approximation of one; it was hard to tell because of the goggles.

He flopped back on the pillow saying, "I'm tired now. Thank you all for coming to visit me." He grinned. "Maybe after my nap you could send in those three darling girls that were just here to give me my sponge bath?" Sister Kate stormed out of the room in disgust. Remington turned to go, then stopped. Chrno was staring off into space, as if making a difficult decision. He looked up and saw the priest staring at him and smiled reassuringly. "Go on, I'll be out there in a second." Realizing this was about as much of an answer as he was going to get, he nodded and followed Sister Kate's path, albeit much more calmly.

"One thing, Chrno-" the weapons maker said to him, straightening up in the bed as Chrno moved to fluff the old man's pillows, "There aren't enough Spirit bullets to keep you powered up for long. There's only the two that I already put in the Horns- and they're from the original batch of three that I made. So you'll have to wait until I can get out of this infernal prison they've got me in to manufacture more."

Chrno started. "How long until they release you?" This was unexpected. What would happen to Rosette while Chrno was sitting around here twiddling his thumbs, waiting for the Elder to recuperate to make more Spirit batteries?

Before the Elder could reply he was interrupted by the head nurse who came storming in. "What's this about my infirmary being an 'infernal prison?'" she asked lividly, pushing up the sleeves of her uniform in the universal sign she was spoiling for a fight. Fifty-ish, she was broad and bulky- not in fat, but bulky all the same. She looked like she'd be more at home playing rugby than tenderly attending the sick and wounded. Chrno took it as his cue to leave, the high pitched protests and squeals from the Elder ringing in his ears as he hurried out.

Chrno stood in the courtyard a half-hour later, the Locator under his arm. He had decided. He would do Rosette no good if he stayed here, while she was in mortal peril with some stranger. Chrno gritted his teeth. When he saw this guy, he was going to give him a piece of his mind. Or take a bit of the other guy's- he wasn't sure which yet.

The yellow ribbon was tied to the handle of the Locator, and as such the wind played with his freed purple tresses, flinging them all over the place. He breathed in deep and tucked the device in the knapsack he had borrowed from the Elder's lab. He had traversed the Gate once before- when he and the other Sinners made it to Earth. Even though it was sixty years since that time, he still remembered how to activate the Gate. It was so simple it was frightening.

He removed an extra pistol he had hidden in his inner coat pocket. It had one Holy bullet in it, which was all the devil needed. Raising his arm to put the gun at his temple, he took another deep breath, held the image of Rosette firmly in his mind,

And pulled the trigger.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next morning, everyone was up bright and early and Rosette was finding the limitations of living on a desert planet- particularly that of no water to spare to shower or do laundry in the morning.

Grumbling and cursing under her breath, she made her way into the mess hall, getting lost and having to turn back twice, all the while feeling extremely grungy in her dirty, sweat-and-blood-stained nuns' robes and lack of body hygiene. While she often returned in a similar state after her sortie missions (in fact, she was usually covered in soot and grime to boot), there was always the promise of a nice, hot bath once she got back to the convent. Now there was no such reward to buoy her mood. When she finally got through the door she was in an extremely foul mood.

She noticed Edward munching down on some pancakes while (trying to) ask Knives who sat across from him- something about the inertia of an object if it's propelled through space at the speed of light. Knives was answering in as few syllables as possible. Vash was over by the stove, wearing a large, poofy chef's hat with an apron that said "KISS THE COOK" in large letters, making more pancakes. He was the first one who noticed Rosette.

"Ah, good, you're up." He said over his shoulder. "Hungry?" he asked, as he expertly flipped the breakfast confection in the air… and got it stuck on the ceiling. It seemed he did that a lot, judging by the amount of batter up there.

Rosette nodded, still in a foul mood and went and sat beside Knives. Even though she had decided last night that her coming here wasn't his fault (might have, in fact, saved her life), she was feeling so rotten this morning that she wanted nothing to do with the Full Metal Alchemist. Edward didn't take the slight to heart though- he was just glad she didn't want to punch him out for breaking her arm and continued eating.

Vash, however, noticed it when he brought the pancakes to her and sat down opposite to her, beside Edward. He also noticed something else. "Sister, why are you still in those filthy rags?" he asked her. What happened next, no one suspected.

Rosette, quite calmly, it seemed, reached with her good hand and grabbed his shirt by its collar, pulling him across the table until they were eye to eye.

"_First of all_," she said slowly, every word shaking with the repressed rage of the past twenty-four hours, "My name is Rosette, not 'Sister'. Secondly, these _rags _are the uniform of the Mary Magdelene Order, and I worked hard in order to be able to wear them. And lastly, they're _filthy because there isn't enough water in this God-forsaken place to wash them!_" Finished with her outburst, she released her captive and tucked into her pancakes.

Vash sat back down, not perturbed at all. Sometimes his denseness wasn't an act at all- sometimes he really was as clueless as people thought he was. This was one of those times.

"Oh, well then, you can use my old suit," he told her with a smile. "Then we can go into town to get yourself something to wear that suits you, and maybe even find that Clock thing you guys lost."

Rosette stared at him. The man was either a moron or a genius- or both. Judging by the vacant look on his face, she decided the genius had taken a lunch break and the moron had set up shop in his absence. But it was a good idea, all the same- even if the suit didn't fit her (which she thought was likely given the different, er, _measurements _between them) she could wear a blanket or something till they got to town and she could get something else. Besides, she had always liked shopping, and being able to shop for herself was a small glimmer of light in what looked to be a very long, dark tunnel.

"Well, here it is," Vash said, leading her through the maze of hallways, stopping in front of a large wooden door, with the silhouette of two rather large pistols crossed at the muzzle on it. Pushing it open, he led her into a room much like the one she was staying in- the only difference being a large mahogany desk with a small kerosene lamp and a notebook-sized leather-bound book. While Vash rummaged through his closet (which was an unapologetic mess; evidently Knives was the clean freak of the two), she found herself drawn to the desk, and more specifically, the book. She ran her hand along the edge of the handsome, darkly tanned cover when she heard him exclaim, "here it is!" She turned around and felt her jaw drop.

"It's a survival suit- a 'one-piece, form-fitting guarantee of your continued existence'." Vash explained proudly. "Or at least, that's what it says on the tag."

Whatever Rosette had been expecting, it sure hadn't been _this._ It was coal black, with hoses and tubes connecting from various parts of the suit to a central- the only word she could think of to describe it was "port hole"; a large circular plate of glass- in the middle of the chest. Rather than make the suit look ridiculously cumbersome, the tubes added to the suits utilitarian charm. There was only one problem. "Uh, Vash? I can't wear this."

The gunslinger looked at her incredulously. "Of course you can. It's a gift- I _insist _you take it. Besides, I don't wear it anymore, so it might as well go to someone who can put it to good use." He held out the suit expectantly.

Realizing he had mistaken her meaning, Rosette blushed. "No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean I can't _wear _this." To emphasize her point, she took the suit and held it against her chest to show the fit. Where it fit perfectly for the tall Plant, it would be at least a foot too big for the shorter nun.

Vash grinned. "Not to worry," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Put it on, and you'll see." Reluctantly, she took the garment.

After making him promise to wait outside in the hall, and threatening him with another one of her five-finger-sandwich specials if he so much as _thought_ of peeping in on her, Rosette proceeded to take off her worn and bloodied robes, hesitating at her wimple. She decided to leave it in- after four years with it on, she'd have felt strange without the slight weight on her head and felt the material on the back of her neck. Besides, it hadn't gotten very dirty at all. Sighing, she pulled on the survival suit. As expected, she looked like a child playing dress-up- the arms were too long, the legs were double the length of hers and the neckline was so low she felt almost naked.

She yelled out to Vash. "Like I said, it's way too big!" She felt extremely stupid. Hadn't she known from the get-go it was going to be like trying on a giraffe skin?

"D'you see that yellow button on the left side of the belt?" He called back. "Push it." Deciding to play the charade a bit longer, she located the daffodil-coloured button and pressed it. Instantly, the suit reacted.

Making a _"slurp!"_ sound, the legs, arms and neck suddenly scrunched in on themselves, becoming half their original length. Her fingers found their right places in the gloved ends of the sleeves just as it settled into its new shape. Rosette was astounded. It was certainly form fitting, but not indecently tight, and she retained the mobility of all of her limbs. Indeed, she felt as though she were wearing a second, protective black skin. And the material wasn't all that had adjusted to her smaller frame. The "port hole" in the middle of her chest had been the size of a dinner plate when she had first noticed it. Now, as she watched in frank amazement, it and the hoses and tubing connected to it also shrank, becoming a fraction of their former sizes. The tubes retained their length but had drastically decreased in diameter, making it possible to be able to hide them under clothes when she got half the chance.

She a knock at the bedroom-slash-change room door and Vash entered with a knowing grin on his face. "See? What did I tell you- it fits like a glove!" He seemed very pleased with himself.

"How… what…" Rosette was still so shocked by the suit's performance she couldn't string two words together.

Vash chuckled. "What, you think a society that can build cryogenic 'sleep pods' and travel vast distances in deep space would need tailors? The suit can retain as much as a gallon of water that would otherwise be wasted as sweat or evaporate from the skin and recycle it to re-hydrate your body, and the material is a special 'healing' matrix- if it gets caught or ripped, it will regenerate the lost tissue." His grin widened. "And that's not all she does." In a loud tone he ordered- "Wake up, EVE!"

As if answering Vash's call, the suit started to hum with energy as lights began blinking on and off in random, yellow and blue

(_yellow and blue lights oh god where are we yellow and blue and yellow and blue we're not in new york no more nope nope nope YELLOW AND BLUE LIGHTS_)

patterns.

Rosette stood there, shocked as another piece of the fragmented memories of their trip here began to fall into place. Something about the yellow and blue lights- somehow, they were integral to how she and the alchemist got here. Rosette shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"Hello, Vash- long time, no see," she heard… coming from the vicinity of her chest. She looked down and let out a shriek. Somehow the devil must have entered the suit while she was putting it on- because staring out of the porthole in the suit was a face.

It was a woman's face, with long, jet-black hair, slanting, almond-shaped eyes and long eyelashes, which were closed. When the face opened her eyes, Rosette saw that they were the most beautiful shade of green. Rosette's mind only registered one thought- that she was wearing a suit possessed by what looked to be a succubus-class devil- and judging by the way the suit clung to her now, humming with the energy of the thing inside the glass, it would be next to impossible to get the damned thing off before it consumed her.

"Calm down, calm down!" Vash exclaimed, grabbing her hands and forcing her to look at him. "This is EVE, the suit's personality. Her name is an acronym for Environment Vital-Exosuit." He looked at the woman. "EVE, would you mind 'gramming out here so I can introduce you two properly?"

The devil- personality- _whatever_- in the suit sighed and a second later two thin beams of light shot out of the chest of the suit, one coming from the top of the circle and one from the bottom, until they formed a sort of open-ended triangle pointing to Rosette's chest. They proceeded to draw, layer by horizontal layer the head of the woman in the porthole, and a body to go along with it. She was dressed in a cocktail dress holding a martini, with her dark hair in an elaborate bun. If Rosette hadn't been freaked out so totally over the appearance of this "ghost", she would have gagged at the woman's style of choice as being too pretentious. "What the hell?" she asked. She went unnoticed by the other two, as the newcomer evidently had eyes only for Vash.

Very _angry _eyes, from which Vash was slowly backing away from.

"You don't _call_, you don't _write_, hell, you don't boot me up to shoot the shit once in a while. What am I, scrambled data to you, Vash?" She asked him, knocking back the virtual martini in one gulp. She tossed the empty glass behind her back, which disappeared in mid-air. "Five years, Vash- Five _years_ I spent in hibernation, waiting for you to call me up again! _And for what?_ I come back online and instead of finding the suit on you where it _should _be, it's on Little Miss Chestless over here! What is she- a girlfriend or a whore?" She eyed Rosette with nothing short of hatred.

At being called a whore, the colour flooded into Rosette's cheeks and she went into full battle mode. Had Chrno been there to witness it, he would have said a prayer for the other woman. "I am _not_ a whore, lady, nor am I his girlfriend! My name is Sister Rosette Christopher, a nun and Devil Exorcist First Class, and you can address me by that, whoever you are!" she shouted back.

EVE was taken aback the younger girl's ferocity, if not rank and title. _'If this little tramp _is_ Vash's new girlfriend, then I have some serious competition.' _The program's internal processors thought._ 'However, she says she's a nun, and last I checked my data, nuns remained celibate. Besides, if she _is_ his girlfriend, why would he wake me up when she put the suit on?'_ The Personality & Protocol Program (P3) of EVE-Suit 19603-B was confused.

EVE decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "All right, I guess you're not his lover, which is good news for you. However," she said, ice in her digitized-soprano voice, "there remains the fact that you're wearing me and Vash isn't. So I suggest you push the yellow button and step out of the suit, or I'll override the locking mechanism that holds the atoms of the suit together and it'll slough off you like water off a duck." Sometimes she really enjoyed her built-in euphemism dictionary.

"Now Evie-" Vash began, using his nickname for her to see if it got him leverage. Judging by the glare she sent him, not only did it not gain him any but it lost him a lot of ground with her.

"Don't 'Now Evie' _me_, Vash. I'll deal with _you_ in a minute" she snapped at him, "once I finish with Miss High-and-Mighty here." She turned her attention back to Rosette, who had not budged to remove the suit.

"Listen Sister, take that suit off now or so help me I'll-"

"Evie, calm down!" Vash interrupted her. "Her regular clothing is too bloodstained and dirty to be able to go to town in. The suit was the only thing that would fit her, so she'll just be wearing it for a little while, and then she'll get a change of clothes in town and remove the suit. Is that all right?" He was studying her holographic face intently, eyes pleading.

EVE finally relented. "Oh, all right. Besides, it'll be good to stretch out my systems after such a long nap." She turned towards Rosette, who stiffened. "But the moment you get your dress Sister, is the moment I come off, so I suggest you find something and get to the changerooms quick." Rosette nodded. Even if she weren't a devil, the nun would be glad to get rid of the overbearing woman.

"Evie, she can't go to town in a survival suit. Could you 'gram a dress over the suit, at least till she buys a real one?" Vash asked her.

EVE for once did not complain but did as she was asked. She walked towards Rosette and embraced her like a sister, and as she did so, her body turned into a lovely robin's egg-blue simple dress with a white and blue polka-dotted smock on the front.

Rosette gasped from watching the smooth transition of the woman to a dress. "W-what the hell?" she asked again in a slightly agitated voice. She was starting again to wonder if the suit was possessed.

Vash hurriedly explained. "What you saw was called a 'hologram'- a three-dimensional image made of light particles. Since it's just a projected image, the 'gram can change into almost anything. In this case, a dress."

"Yeah, but don't get used to it," she heard EVE say. "You're only wearing me for a while." That was perfectly fine with Rosette- she didn't care if the suit allowed her to fly to the _moon_, as long as she had to deal with this much attitude she'd take a plain, old, everyday dress over it every time.

"Well then, shall we?" Vash asked, opening the door and bowing like a valet, allowing the ladies to pass through before exiting the room himself and closing the door behind him.

His head hurt.

As Chrno slowly regained consciousness, a throbbing in his temple increased as his awareness did. When he was fully awake it felt so bad he thought he'd died. Then he remembered. _'Oh, yeah. I _did._'_

Chrno sat up looked around. He was lying on the ground in some place where there was only a vast, yellow-tinged expanse as far as the eye could see, and, Chrno was willing to bet, farther, in all directions save one: Right in front of him stood a huge door.

It was flanked by two columns and was topped by a triangle, lying on its side and looking for all the world like the entranceway the Lincoln Memorial that Chrno had seen pictures of. The difference was that between the two columns were two huge, rectangular slabs of stone standing on their ends, side by side as doors. On each was half of an upraised Eye, lidless with concentric circles rippling out from the center into ever-widening circles until they met the rim of the Eye. No doubt about it- he was at the Gate.

He dredged up the memory of the first time he had crossed the Gate of Knowledge, from the other side; he doubted the process would be too different from this one.

"_First," Aion had explained, looking at each of the five devils standing in front of him, "you must clear your minds of all thoughts, except your destination. Next, you must picture yourself there. And lastly, you must give something in exchange to be allowed to traverse the Gate. Genai. Viede. If you would bring our guest."_

_The hulking devil, Viede, brought forth a bound and gagged old devil who was trying his best to escape the younger's grasp. Genai whacked him upside the head, eliciting a whimper from the aged devil. "Shut up, or it'll be a lot worse, old man." Genai growled. His left hand, a giant pair of shears, found themselves on either side of his victim's throat. With one muscle twitch, the old devil's head would part way from his shoulders._

_Aion watched, not quite impassively, a smirk working on his face. Rizelle, the spider she-devil who fancied herself his mate, snuggled up close to him, gazing raptly at his face. The antromorphic cat-devil, Shaena, giggled. Chrno turned away; he was not sure whether it was the torturing of the old man or the shameless display of unrequited affection that made him feel nauseous. _

_Suddenly, with a _shinkt _sound, the captive's plaintive moans ceased. Chrno's nostrils flared at the unmistakable smell of the old devil's life force escaping into the air. It smelt a lot like ozone, the kind of air you got when you climbed a high mountain. And then, suddenly, it was there. _

_There was no ominous mist or bang or any theatrics; the Gate merely appeared, drawn to the old man's spilled essence like a shark to blood in the water. Slowly, the doors swung inwards with a creak and groan, into a blackness marred by a thousand staring purple eyes. _

_Aion shook Rizelle off of him and stepped towards the gate, arms outstretched as if greeting an old friend, a genial smile lit upon his face. "Creatures of the Gate!" He called, "We wish for passage to the Human world. You have smelled your payment," At this, Viede tossed the decapitated corpse inside the gate, where it was instantly snatched up by a thousand black hands, "and now, fulfill your side of the bargain!"_

_The black hands reached out towards Aion, who was laughing all the while, wrapping themselves around his arms and legs and began to pull him in. Rizelle looked about to leap in to try to save him but was restrained by a silent Viede, who shook his head. More tentacle-like arms, with grasping hands of the ends of them came through the Gate, taking Viede, Genai, Rizelle, Shaena, and finally, Chrno. _

As he was drawn into the blackness, Chrno realized that it wasn't a sea of black, but rather a long, shining yellow tunnel with a white light at the end of it. And something else too- something he'd heard rumours about, the reason why he joined Aion: Warmth. Contrary to the Christian doctrine, the place where devils called home was neither hot nor filled with fire and brimstone. Rather, it was a cold and desolate land, where nothing grew or changed. Chrno knew that any place that had such a wonderful sensation would have to be Heaven- no other world could be so well off. For the first time in his existence, he was warm.

Chrno smiled at the memory of his naiveté. That was before he met Mary Magdalene, and long before a young Rosette and her brother Joshua barged in on his self-imposed exile.

Rosette. The name was like a bucket of cold water to the devil's face. He knew he had to get moving if he was going to be of any use to her. He stood up and walked towards the Gate. It stood silent, impassive. Chrno knew he was only going to get its attention by offering up a sacrifice of Astral energy.

His mind screamed at him not to do it, not to through away his only weapon and power source, something that would enable him to fully utilize his demonic powers once more. He pulled off his Horns and looked at them longingly not for what they were but what they represented, still pulsing with the energies from the Spirit bullets the Elder had put into them.

Then he threw them right at the Gate.

The effect was instantaneous. While they were still flying through the air, the Gate opened and the tentacle-arms flew out to grab them, greedily siphoning the energy from the Horns even as they were being pulled in. Screwing up his courage, Chrno shouted out before the Gate could close, "Take me to her!" he cried, lifting his arms so they could be grasped to drag him, once more, through the Gate.

The arms that were not busy with the Horns came barreling down him, clutching his arms and legs. They pulled him inside the Gate, which closed with a bang.

Chrno could tell that something was wrong this time around. Instead of merely clutching his arms, and legs as they had before, it seemed that wherever they touched him was fading away. He began to frantically beat at them and struggle, until he managed to loosen their grasp on him and he dropped in freefall. The arms were almost upon him-

Chrno awoke to the smell of smoke and dust. Every muscle in his body felt like it had been stamped on by Rosette in her steel-toed boots, his head felt like it had cracked in two, and places he didn't even know he had were hurting. But all that amounted to one thing: he was alive and whole.

He slowly sat up. He was weak- very weak. Chrno hadn't realized just how much energy it took to get across the Gate. And now, without the Horns…

He struggled to his feet trying to gain his bearings, before he stumbled and collapsed, exhausted from that small effort. If he didn't find an Astral energy source soon… He shuddered to think of it. He used this time between attempts at rising to take in his surroundings. He seemed to be on the top of a small hill, overlooking a canyon. Down in the canyon he could see men working, pulling little round stones out every now and again from the walls. He was just about to shout for help from these miners when he saw something sparkle on a rocky outcropping down below him. Curious, he decided to investigate.

He managed not to slip and fall on his face as he climbed down. He reached the ledge above where he saw the reflection and was just about to peek over when he was roughly flipped over onto his back and the blade of a rather sharp-looking sword put an inch from his face. The wielder of the blade looked down on him with eyes the colour of dried blood, a maroon so dark they appeared to be brown, glaring at him under jet black bangs. The blade quivered when the boy spoke.

"Say your prayers, spy of Zaibach."

Authour's Note: The Gate is actually from Fullmetal Alchemist, NOT Chrno Crusade.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Well, here she is," Vash said proudly, "The _Angela III._" He, Rosette (and EVE, of course) and Edward were in what Vash called the "garage" part of the complex- a large, windowless room with all manners of vehicles in various states of repair. Vash explained to the two visitors it was his hobby to buy old or worn-out clunkers and fix them up, so he could sell them back to the townsfolk to buy the few things he and his brother needed that they could not make themselves, such as medicine, new clothes or the occasional box of doughnuts ('occasional' being a relative term- Vash limited himself to one triple-dozen box a week). As Rosette looked around the shop, she could see he did nice work- many of the nearly completed motorcycles and cars looked almost brand-new.

In this instance however, she couldn't see why he was swelling with an almost fatherly pride as he pointed to the car they were to take into town. It was, in a word, junk- the upholstered seats were torn and faded, the windshield was cracked, and the pullover felt hood was dusty and full of holes. _'Not that I'm expecting much in the way of rain, but still, out of all of these nice cars, why do we have to go in _that_?'_ She thought privately to herself. Then a thought crossed her mind that made her grin. _'Well, since it's in such poor condition, maybe he won't mind me behind the wheel- after all, I don't think he'd be able to tell the difference if I crashed it.'_

It had taken them almost an hour to drive the single ile from Eden to town. Vash had driven, and more than once Rosette had to sit on her hands to keep them from finding their way around his neck for driving so slowly. She was convinced it would have been faster if they had walked. Judging from the muted mutterings coming from the front seat, Edward agreed with her. The only good part about the trip was that EVE stayed quiet, evidently accustomed to her former wearer's driving habits.

When they finally reached their destination and climbed out of the car, Vash gestured grandly. "Here we are, the City of Azure!"

Unlike with the _Angela_, Rosette thought that Vash's introduction to the city was quite accurate. Where it was by no means a New York or Chicago, it wouldn't be mistaken for a little hick-town, either. She saw ladies in fine gowns and hats milling about the shops, carrying umbrellas with them to shade them from the sun. Men intermixed with the women, wearing bowling hats and three-piece suits, bustling from here to there. The buildings themselves were stories tall, most of them two or more. All in all, the scene looked like it came from a new Sherlock Holmes story that Sister Claire always sent for when it came out in England.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" A gravelly voice behind them growled. Rosette whirled around, expecting the devil to attack. What she saw wasn't a devil, but the sight was frightening enough. Standing before them stood a squat, filthy, and homely man with a cap jammed on his head, wiping his hands on an equally filthy rag. He wore denim jeans and what Rosette thought might have once been a white shirt. There was a scar running down his cheek from his forehead, and the eye on that side of his face was milky white, clouded with cataracts. When he smiled, he showed two uneven rows of yellowed teeth.

To her utter amazement, Vash stepped forward and shook the man's hand. "Hey, Jack, how's it going?" he asked him genially, as if they were old friends.

"Not too bad, Eric. Not too bad at all. Old Man Dithers said the transmission on his car's gone and broke again, and the bigwigs on the Town Council say that the public transport buses need to be overhauled, so I got plenty of work a'comin' to me." He nodded to Edward and Rosette. "Why don't you introduce me to your friends? I don't bite." He added, giving a friendly wink to Rosette.

Vash slapped his forehead in embarrassment. "Of course, of course. Rosette, Edward, this is Jack Chong, an old friend of mine and owner of Jack's Auto Body Repair Shop. When I fix up the cars, he's the one who sells them. Jack, this is Sister Rosette Christopher and Mr. Edward Elric, visitors to my home."

"Eric here gave me my hand back after I lost it in an accident," Jack explained, pulling back one of his sleeves to show a band of metal right around his wrist. He flexed his fingers, and Rosette could here the faint whine of gears and motors. "Because of that, any friend of Eric's is a friend of mine." He said, pumping both of their hands in a sure, strong grip.

'_Man,'_ thought Rosette, _'does _everyone_ here have a metal arm?'_ It sure seemed like it.

Edward, however, had a better question to ask. "Mr. Chong, why is it that you call him Eric? I thought his name was Vas-"

Before he could finish, he had one oil-stained hand pressed against his mouth. "Quiet, boy! Do you have any idea what the people around here'd _do_ if they caught wind that the Humanoid Typhoon was walking around right under their noses?" The grease monkey hissed. "First they'd run and hide, which wouldn't be too bad, but then they'd call in bounty hunters and the Calvary, who would raze our fair city to the ground looking for him! Eric is his alias." He eyed the Fullmetal Alchemist meaningfully. "It is _imperative_ that you call him that while you're here, all right? Everyone knows him as Eric, and it would make a mighty awkward situation if you happened to have a slip of the tongue and call him- the 'V' name. _Do I make myself clear?" _Edward nodded and breathed deep once the hand was removed, coughing at the taste of the oil and brake fluids. Jack turned towards Rosette, who stiffened, expecting the same attack on her. But all he said was, "the same goes to you, Miss Rosette," to which she merely nodded.

After they had left the car with Jack, who promised to look after it while they were in town, they went in separate directions. Rosette and EVE went off to look for a couple of new dresses for her using some money Vash gave them, with Edward tagging along because he didn't want to leave "a defenseless girl" (two defenseless girls if you included EVE) wandering the town alone. Besides, he still felt kind of guilty about bringing Rosette here in the first place, even though neither the circumstances nor the destination were what he had in mind.

Vash decided to use this trip into the city to enjoy a couple dozen doughnuts in the bakery, where he was a regular. In fact, he was _such_ a regular that the bakery (other than the local pharmacy and Jack's, of course) was the only place he went when he was in town. He grinned. It was time to see if the nice waitresses had kept the usual mountain of doughnuts aside for him.

Unbeknownst to the three, a hooded figure watched them go in different directions. The devil turned on his heel and walked away, smirking. It was time to stir up some trouble.

"Hmm- No."

"Don't think so."

"It just isn't what I'm looking for."

"Would you _please_," EVE hissed through gritted vocal synthesizers, "just _grab a dress and put it on already!"_ She was becoming very irritated- it had been over an hour since they had parted ways with Vash and here they were, _still_ looking at dresses. Edward had gone off after about a half hour, saying something about seeing a café across the road and wanting to go get a drink. EVE thought she'd been more than generous with the girl, but if she didn't find a dress within the next _minute_, she'd be wearing a helluva lot different kind of suit than a survival one- she'd be showcasing the one she came into the world in.

Just as EVE was about to undo the molecular locks and let gravity take the suit off the nun, she heard her exclaim triumphantly "Aha! Found one!" and was marched into the changerooms, where she heaved a sigh of relief and dropped the hologram. While it wasn't an especially draining task to just keep the image up, it got harder when you factored in all the different things that had to be done to preserve the illusion of a real dress-the way it moved when the Sister took a step, for instance, or what way it would ruffle when the wind picked up. If the dress hadn't acted like a real one, EVE might just as well dropped it and instead had a large illuminated holographic sign right above the nun's head that said "ADVANCED SURVIVAL SUIT- LOST TECHNOLOGY WALKING OVER HERE!" with an arrow pointing down at her.

Rosette shrugged the suit off and folded it neatly, tucking it away in a corner as she tried on the dress. When she had managed to slip it on (a trick, to be sure, because of her broken arm), she had to bite her lip to keep from squealing. While it would never compare to the works of art and lace she saw the women outside wearing, it was a beautiful dress in its own right: made from rich, royal blue silk that match her eyes, with puffed-up shoulders and frilled wrists and hemming. She looked adorable in it. It was plain enough not to draw too much attention to her, yet still looked lovely to those who did notice. There was only one problem with it- there wasn't anywhere to stick the suit so it wouldn't be noticed.

Fortunately, EVE noticed this too and had an idea. "Psst, Sister," she whispered to Rosette, "slide me under the wall into the next changeroom!" Rosette looked and sure enough, there was a gap at least a foot-and-a-half wide between the partition that separated the changerooms and the floor. She slid the bundled-up suit underneath it, wondering what the Personality was going to do.

She got her answer when she left her own cubbyhole. Walking out almost simultaneously from the changeroom next to hers was a woman with long black hair and slanted eyes that were the most beautiful shade of green, wearing a carbon copy of the dress Rosette was wearing, save that hers was a green to match her eyes. She came out carrying a much fancier dress over her arm. Seeing Rosette, she winked as she hung it up on the rack and said aloud, "Oh well. I guess I'll just have to ask James later to let me get this dress, because I just _have_ to have it!" Rosette nodded dumbly, wondering who in the seven circles of Hell 'James' was and wishing they would just pay and get out of there. After they left, no one in the store noticed that the fancy dress faded into thin air.

Sure enough, there was a café across the street, with Edward sitting at a table on the open veranda, sipping a glass of ice water. He looked rather bored until he saw the two girls, whom he waved to come and join him, looking a bit surprised at the sight of an EVE solid enough to support the suit. "Isn't that taxing your energy reserves?" he asked her, curious. When he had been first introduced to her he had proceeded to barrage her with a million technical questions. While she had at first been pleased by the attention, she had quickly grown weary and then annoyed by Edward's constant questioning. He had only shut up when she promised to give him her full schematics at a later date.

EVE nodded. "A bit more than maintaining just a hologram, but I can maintain it for a little while without any large concern, as long as I recharge later." One of the myriad questions of Edward's had been about her energy needs and replenishment ability. She had told him that the suit took in whatever energy it could find- solar, electric, even the wind could turn special conductors in the suit to make energy- to cover the basic functions of the suit, such as its water retention ability, which it did quite efficiently. However, when more power-draining functions were used, such as hologram projection, EVE needed to power-down the suit and allow it to collect energy while outputting as little as possible, saving up until her reserves were at their peak. "Think of it like when you go to sleep," she had said to simplify it. "That's why I call it 'hibernation'- it's my version of sleeping."

"Besides, I don't mind if it gets me out of the house." She went on as the waitress came over to their table. "I like it outside with the people."

"Hello, and welcome to the Typhoon Café!" the waitress said. She looked to be a couple of years shy of thirty and was quite tall, perhaps as tall as Vash, with the same colour eyes. Her hair, a sort of dirty blond, was shoulder-length and framed her face. However, despite her size and age, she had all the youthful exuberance of a ten-year-old. "My name's Millie, and I will be your waitress today! Is there anything you'd like?" She struck a pose as if trying to remember something. "Lesee here… we have coffee, tea, milk, juice, uh… oh, I always forget this one- oh! And soda, too!" She seemed inordinately pleased to have remembered them all herself.

When Rosette had placed her order (EVE begging off, saying that she wasn't thirsty), Millie turned towards Edward. "Anything else, Mr. Scientist?" She asked him sweetly. He gave her his empty glass and she quite happily wandered away in the general direction of the kitchen, they guessed.

When he turned around, he saw Rosette and EVE staring at him. "What?" he asked defensively, unnerved.

"Who is she?" Rosette asked. "She seems to know you pretty good."

Edward snorted. "While I was waiting for you two to hurry up and get a dress, she brought me an ice water. We got talking, and she said that her and her friend started this café from nothing five years ago, and now it's one of the most popular places to eat in the three cities closest to this one. I said I was a scientist, that's all." He got up. "I have to leave you two ladies for a moment. Be right back," he said as he went inside the café.

"So," EVE asked awkwardly when he left, "How did you two get to be V- er, _Eric's_ guests?"

"It's a long story," Rosette said guardedly, "I'll tell you later."

EVE nodded, but didn't look happy. Even though they were sitting outside in the middle of a desert under two blazing suns, the air around the table the two women sat at dropped a good few degrees below freezing, and stayed that way for a while.

That is, until the café exploded.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Prepare to die, spy of Zaibach!" the dark-maned youth shouted at him. Chrno somehow managed to roll out of the blade's path as the boy lunged and got unsteadily to his feet, feeling the sap of Astral energy even more now that he was forced to become active.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" he gasped.

The boy was remarkably quick on his feet, and had already recovered from Chrno's narrow escape, setting himself up for a charging diagonal slash that Chrno had no hope of avoiding.

"Van, no!" a girl's voice cried out. The combatants stared at the girl who had run suddenly in front of the swordsman, blocking Chrno from the murderous assault with the blade an inch from the underside of her right breast. "He's not a Zaibach spy. I don't know how I know, but I'm sure of it."

"Hitomi," the swordsman Van growled, "Get out of the way."

"Van, listen to me," Hitomi said, "You've trusted me this far, and I've been right every time- the attack on Fanelia, on Allen's castle, on Palas- please, trust me now. He's no threat to us."

"He snuck up right behind us," the boy insisted, though the fire had died from his eyes. "He knows our location, and if he's not part of Zaibach, what is he doing in a Zaibach mining operation?"

Chrno was confused. Evidently he had stumbled upon enemies of the miners he had thought to seek aid from. Well, whichever- the important thing was to keep from getting skewered by the boy. "I'm not a Zaibach spy. I don't even know what a Zaibach _is,_" he stated.

The boy seemed mollified a bit by this, as he sheathed his sword. However, Chrno realized that he was not convinced, and probably would have Chrno's head part company from his shoulders if he did anything to raise the young man's suspicions. Also he was not presenting the strongest of arguments standing behind this girl as a shield.

"Very well," the young man said. "If you think he's not from Zaibach, Hitomi, I shall leave him in your care." He turned to Chrno. "You should know, though- it is only by the grace of the Lady Hitomi whom you cower behind that I do not kill you where you stand. If you betray the trust held in you, I will not hesitate to kill you." With that, he stormed off.

"Wait, where are you going?" she called.

He called over his shoulder, "I'm going to scout around. Go find a cave to hide in."

The girl turned to him, evidently embarrassed by the flush rising in her cheeks. "I'm sorry. Van's not usually like that. My name's Hitomi Kanzaki." She gave a little bow, the pendulum swinging into the air and back onto her collarbone.

Now that she was properly facing him, Chrno studied his saviour. She was about as tall as Rosette, with apple-green eyes and sandy brown hair, and she wore an outfit that looked (quite ludicrously, Chrno thought) like an American Navy sailor's uniform with a miniskirt and patent-leather shoes. She carried a strange, purple-and-green bag. It was far too big to be a purse, yet it was the closest thing Chrno could place it to. She looked to be about a year or so younger than Rosette. There was something about her that reminded him strongly of the nun, but he couldn't quite place it…

He saw that she was looking at him curiously. Mentally he shook himself. "I'm Chrno," he said, extending his hand in greeting. As Hitomi moved to shake it, her eyes fell on his shoulder and she gasped.

"Your arm!" she exclaimed.

He looked at it. There was a long gash on his upper right arm. Evidently he had

_(The arms were coming down at him, they seemed to fill the sky, there were so many)_

_(One grabbed his arm, gouging him with it sharp claws)_

scratched it somewhere. While not alarmingly deep, the wound was bleeding freely- a waste of Astral energy Chrno did not need. She motioned for him to sit down as she rummaged through her bag, pulling out gauze bandages. Those, at least, Chrno recognized. _'Must be a variety of medicine bag,'_ he thought. _'It's certainly big enough to hold enough for an army.'_

As she dressed the wound, he found himself asking, "Why did you save me back there?" The question popped out his mouth so bluntly he wondered where it came from. She stopped dressing his wound, shocked at the unforeseen question. "I mean, I thank you, but how did you know that I wasn't working for this Zaibach person?" He backpedaled frantically.

She smiled softly at him."I- I don't know how I _knew,_" she said, "But I just got this _feeling _that you weren't here to hurt us, y'know?" she looked at him curiously. "And Zaibach isn't a person; it's a kingdom. Any resident of Gaea should know _that_."

"Where?" Chrno asked. _'Gaea?' _he thought, confused.

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Wait. _Where _did you say you were from?" she asked him. Chrno decided to go with the truth.

"New York," he said, hoping she wouldn't decide to call Van over to finish the job after all. Her eyes went from squinty suspicion to wide-eyed astonishment so fast Chrno thought that her eyeballs had exploded in their sockets.

"New… York…" she breathed, "You're from New York…" Unexpectedly, she grabbed him by the lapels of his red coat. "How did you get here from there? Did you come in a pillar of light like me? Did you see anyone, like a dragon or something, just before it? Can I get back using the way you came?" she demanded.

Chrno thought about having to shoot himself in order to be able to traverse the Gate. "I don't think you'd quite enjoy going to New York the way I came here," he said. "But what's this about pillars of light and dragons?"

So Hitomi filled him in on what was happening. It seemed she was transported to Gaea, along with Van, by some unknown force. When she arrived they went to Fanelia, a small kingdom where Van was from. Zaibach forces came and destroyed Fanelia, with Van and Hitomi fleeing for their lives in something called the Escaflowne. After that they met a man named Allen Schezar and flew to Palas, the capital of the kingdom of Asturia, pursued by Zaibach. Zaibach managed to catch up with them in Palas, and once again Van, Hitomi as well as Van's childhood friend Merle had to fly away in the Escaflowne, leaving Allen to duke it out with the leader of the Zaibach troops. Evidently that was why they were here, in what Hitomi called a 'Dragon Graveyard'- Zaibach mined precious Drag-Energists from the fossilized corpses of the countless dragons that had come here to die. Dragons used these Energists like a heart, while they powered Zaibach's war machines, the Guymelefs. If they could destroy this mining operation, it would put a serious kink in their machinery.

Chrno held up a hand. "That's all very interesting," he said, "but I haven't heard anything about a war of this magnitude going on, and I'm pretty sure there are no dragons as big as houses on Earth."

That's when Hitomi dropped her bombshell. "It's not on Earth," she said, pointing heavenwards. The sun was setting and the stars could begin to be seen. But the stars weren't what were grabbing Chrno's attention; he was staring at something much bigger and closer than that, yet smaller and further away than he ever imagined.

Where one would expect to see the moon beginning to show itself, he found himself looking at the Earth above his head.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Edward stood up. "I have to leave you two ladies for a moment. Be right back," he said as he got up and went inside the café. '_There's gotta be a bathroom somewhere around here,'_ he thought anxiously. Seeing Millie, he asked her where the washrooms were.

"Just down the hall there, on your left just before you reach the kitchen," she replied with a smile. "I'll be out with your refill and the lady's soda in a minute." He nodded his thanks and hurried off in the direction of the kitchen.

After he came out of the washroom, he heard noises coming from the kitchen. While this in itself wasn't alarming, it was not the shouting of lunch orders and the clanging of pots and pans he heard, but rather the noises of some sort of scuffle. Sliding up to the open doorway of the kitchen, he peeked in, immediately furious by the sight that met his eyes. Inside were four men, three of them dressed in different styles of clothing- one looked like a businessman with a three-piece suit and black bowler hat, one was in a cheesy cowboy getup, and the third dressed in a bizarre combination of the two, bowler hat and cowboy boots. The only article of clothing that suggested they were part of a group was a red bandanna visible on each man. Businessman had it tucked like a handkerchief in his breast pocket, Cowboy wore it as a scarf, bandit-style around his neck, while Mismatch had it tied around his left bicep. The one that got his attention, though, was the last one. He stood in front of the others and looked to be their leader, yet he wore simple blue jeans and a white t-shirt. The only flamboyancy in his dress was a black leather jacket. His bandanna has tied around his forehead under his pageboy length dark hair to act as a sweatband. He was currently harassing a short, black-haired woman with dangly earrings.

"Now, now, sweetie," the brute said mockingly sweetly, "you're behind in your monthly dues. You know that I let you off with a discount, but you still gotta pay 'em." He enclosed her slender wrist in one of his ham-sized paws, yanking her up by it. "How are me and the boys here supposed to put food on the table if our 'investments' don't put back the money we put into 'em?" His cronies behind him guffawed, as if in on some joke.

To her credit, the diminutive woman stood her ground firmly. "Please, Damian. All I'm asking for is a bit more time, and you'll get your money. Besides, right now we're operating this place in the red, and Milly still needs some money to get medicine for the twins-"

She was silenced by a swift _slap_ across the cheek. "Don't tell me your problems," he growled, all trace of the sickening charm wiped from his face. "I don't _care_ if you're running a deficit- all I want is the money that's due to me for being the nice guy that I am and not torching this rat-hole to the ground with you in it." He gave her a shake just to show her what a nice guy he was. "And as for that whore, she and those bastard children of hers can rot out on the streets for all I care! Let them be plagued by syphilis, typhoid, and boils!" he raged, slapping her again, this time eliciting a whimper from her.

Edward had seen enough. He was not a crusading do-gooder who sought out evil in all its forms- he was just a weary traveler, trying to get home. But when a situation arose along the way and he was there to do something about it, then he was going to; otherwise he would not be able to face himself afterwards. It had always been thus; even when he was known far and wide as the Fullmetal Alchemist those many long years ago. Bolstered by the memory, he stepped into the doorway, in full view of the men, his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. "Hey jackass," he called, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt, "I know you're ugly as sin, but you don't need to take out your frustration on the lady."

The leader and his lackeys looked up in shock at the bold appearance of the interloper. After a second's pause, he threw the woman to the side of the room. "Well, well- Boys, this fellow here seems to have a death wish. Take care of him." His smirk faded when he realised that his 'boys' hadn't moved from their spots behind him. They seemed frozen in place in terror.

"T-that's him," Mismatch said, raising a shaking finger to point to Edward. "That's the guy who killed Carlo!"

"I heard he's got the same skills as Vash the Stampede!" Businessman added, taking out his handker-bandanna and wiping his brow, which was perspiring from fear. "After all, he shot Carlo with his own gun!"

"He doesn't have the same _skills_ as Vash the Stampede, he _is_ Vash the Stampede!" put in Cowboy. "I mean, look at him! He's tall, blonde, and he's got a red coat. I'd have to say that matches the description of the Humanoid Typhoon." Businessman and Mismatch were shaking their heads in dumb agreement.

Their leader, however, was looking at them like they had grown three extra eyes and tails. "And I made you three my lieutenants." He said in disgust. "Afraid of old wives' tales! Carlo accidentally shot himself, and what Montoya saw was probably a sand cloud." It wasn't unusual for people to mistake the many particles of dust and sand that were picked up by the wind for things such as distant cars and people, sometimes even towns on the horizon, .

Where the other two were mollified, Mismatch still looked troubled. "But Damian, what about the watch that was left in Carlo's pocket? _That _couldn't have been left by a-"

He was interrupted by Damian abruptly picking him up and slamming him into the wall. "I _said_, there was nothing there but dust!" the larger man growled, throwing fear into his lackey. "Do you want to _argue_ with me on that?" At Mismatch's whimper of "no," Damian smirked. "Well then," he said, removing his hand and allowing Mismatch to slide down the wall, "Why don't you do as I say and GET HIM!" He yelled, turning around to face the would-be hero.

But the punk wasn't there.

"Oh, man," Edward huffed. "Who _were _those guys?" He had used the momentary distraction to scoop up the unconscious girl and dash into a darkened storeroom further down the hall. _'Whoever they are,'_ he thought, _'they think I killed someone named Carlo and left my pocket watch with him as proof. And judging from their reactions when they laid eyes on me, they're scared of me- though if it came right down to it they're probably more afraid of their boss.'_ Their fear, at least for the time being, was an advantage. If he could just get out of the café-

The woman beside him groaned, interrupting his thoughts. She opened her eyes, looking up at him with wide eyes. Not risking the chance she would scream, he quickly crouched to meet the woman's face and put a hand over her mouth.

"Shh," he said quietly, "or we'll both be killed." The woman nodded, signalling she understood and that she wouldn't scream. Edward removed his hand reluctantly.

Instead of the shrill shriek he had been expecting, she asked him quietly, "Who are you?" She didn't seem frightened- Edward could tell this was a woman who was used to handling scary situations. He guessed that to live on this planet, you had to be.

He was about to tell her his name when he remembered the looks of terror the henchmen had shot him. While useful in confrontation, Edward didn't think it would help him in this case, so he used the first name that came to mind. "Alphonse." He said, involuntarily wincing at the memories of his brother that came to him as he invoked it. "What's yours?"

Fortunately, the woman didn't seem to have noticed his momentary lapse of composure- after all, it _was _dark. "Meryl Stryfe," she replied, "Part owner of this café." She nodded towards the hall, where the gang presumably was. "Those thugs out there were trying to extort money from me for 'protection.'"

"Speaking of which," Edward asked, sitting on the ground beside her, "Who _were_ those guys?"

She gave him a look. "You're not from around these parts, are you?" He shook his head. "They're part of the local gang, the Red Rogues," Meryl explained. "Their leader is Damian, the guy in the leather coat, and he has his hands in almost everything in Azure and the surrounding towns- drugs, bootleg alcohol, prostitution." She shook her head. "But he gets a good chunk of his cash from extorting money from legitimate business owners, and this month I was a bit behind on the 'rent.' Nobody can stop him, since he pays off the police and the mayor's just a puppet. So, the businesses around here are on their own- you can't make it the first time, you're let off with a warning. What you saw there was what happens when you lapse twice- and it would've gotten a lot worse, if not for you." At this, she smiled her gratitude.

The smile faded as she went on. "And if you miss a third payment- well, the places that haven't paid Damian three times aren't around anymore. Neither are their owners." She sighed. "If it wasn't for Millie- my business partner- and the kids, I would've said to the Waste with it when they first came to my door and sold the café right then and there. But Millie needs money for her kids- right now they're sick, really sick, and their medicine is expensive." She looked at him. "Not many people would risk their necks for someone they don't know.Why did you save me, Alphonse?"

"Call me Al," Edward said, brushing himself off as he got up, "We're not out of the woods yet. Now they're going to be looking for you and me, so we-" Just then, they heard voices outside the storeroom door. "Dammit! Quick, hide!" he said, grabbing Meryl's arm and dragging her behind a cluster of stacked crates. He hid himself in a nearby broom closet and just closed the door when the storeroom door flew back on its hinges, slamming into the wall behind it with a _crash_. In walked Damian and his lackeys, looking around for their prey.

Damian called out, again using that sickly-sweet tone of voice and Edward had to bite back a sarcastic retort. "Meryl, we know you and that guy are in here. Now, I don't blame you for this situation babe, but I'd much rather have you where I can see you so there are no accidents."

Through the crack between the closet door and the wall, Edward saw Damian direct two of his henchmen to start checking behind the boxes. They began to knock over anything that didn't afford them a clear view behind it, moving slowly and methodically throughout the room, pistols drawn to shoot anything that tried to scurry away.

"Last chance, sweetheart, or else I'm going to get mad. And even if I don't find you, I'll have plenty of fun with that cow that you call a friend. Of course, you could still be unconscious, in which case all this talking is pointless." Damian said, a dangerous amusement entering his voice. From his jacket pocket he extracted a lighter and a cigarette. He cupped the cigarette, flipped open the lighter and lit it. The one goon had almost reached Meryl's hiding place. "So, I guess that must be it. Well, that's fine then. I'll see you around." He motioned for the goons to stop searching (one of them coming within a hair's breadth of coming face to face with Meryl). Mismatch left the room, coming in a second later lugging two cans of something. Edward didn't realize what it was until they had started sloshing the contents all over everything and the smell hit his nose. _Gasoline._ The bastards were going to burn them alive.

The dousing finished, the goons skedaddled out of the room to safety, leaving only Damian behind. He grinned, and Edward was strongly reminded of the lizard-wolf chimeras that Shou Tucker had created- they shared the same cold malice and delight in other people's suffering. He flipped open the lighter again and touched it to a pile of gasoline-soaked rags close by. The pile readily caught ablaze, and he left the room laughing, closing the door and locking it behind him.

_He was staring up at the Earth._

Before Chrno could ask why the planet on which he was supposed to be standing on was staring at him like a great blue-and-green eyeball, a spasm of intense, gut-wrenching pain shot through his body

"Agh!" he cried, falling to his knees and clutching his chest. _'It's begun,'_ he thought. It was the final stage of Astral deprivation: His body was so starving for energy that it was literally ripping itself apart to get it. That it should happen so quickly showed just how much power he had sacrificed to get through the Gate. He screamed as the pain steady worsened, until he was in constant agony.

Hitomi knelt down worriedly as another spasm wracked the stranger's body. She was no nurse- she was still in high school, for heaven's sake! The only thing she could do was comfort him, so she reached down and gripped his hand. Instantly she felt as if being sucked through a giant straw, being stretched and strained and steadily diminishing in energy. It took every last ounce of strength she had to break the connection and she sat back, exhausted.

Chrno groaned and sat up. He was feeling slightly better, but he knew it was a matter of time before the pains came again. And after the pain… He shook his head to clear it. He wondered how the pain had stopped, until he looked over at Hitomi and saw her sitting there, pale, sweaty, and looking at him in fright. In a flash he understood.

He must have unconsciously assimilated her Astral energy when she touched him. While he had done the same thing on a number of occasions, he always asked consent and the amounts were always small. Horned devils do something similar- only they pull in the Astral energy that's just floating around them. However, he had been in such a state that when Hitomi grabbed his hand he sucked as greedily at her life force as a babe at the breast. He tentatively reached out towards her and she skittered away, afraid now of any contact between them lest that horrible experience be repeated.

Before he could apologize, a small noise quite like a pebble falling down a cliff caught his attention. He looked up for the source of the sound and saw a black blur falling out of the deepening night sky at him. Before he could move out of the way it was on him, clawing and biting.

"Merle, _no!_" Hitomi cried, trying to get and finding she didn't have the strength. "It's all right! I'm all right!"

The attack ceased and the blur had leapt away from him, hissing and landing in a crouch in front of Hitomi, back arched like a cat. Chrno could see two huge blue eyes staring balefully at him. A dying ray of sunlight illuminated it and Chrno could see bright pink hair, deeply tanned skin with what looked like black slashes all along the arms, legs and face and the fact that it seemed to be wearing a one-piece dress that (barely) reached the mid-thigh. From this, the slightness of the frame and the high pitch of the hissing it was giving off, Chrno took it for a young female. What really got his attention were the two catlike ears perched atop the head and the tail that, like the other visible parts of her body was banded with black tattoo-like rings and ended in a large white pouf. Suddenly, Chrno understood.

"_Cat-Devil!"_ he cried. He reached into his pocket for the spare pistol and clip of ammunition he had taken to carrying with him at all times, keeping his eyes focused on the thing that had just attacked him. Having found it, he slammed the magazine into the butt of the gun and pulled back the barrel of the gun, bringing the top bullet of the magazine into the chamber. He levelled it at the devil.

"No, Chrno!" Hitomi cried, finding her strength enough to leap and tackle the cat-devil, bringing them both to the ground, the cat-devil hissing and Hitomi on top.

The cat-devil spoke. "Ow, Hitomi!" she cried, rubbing her head.

Chrno hesitated. At Hitomi's encouraging nod, he ejected the clip and the bullet already in the chamber, pushing it back down on top of its brothers. He slammed it back into the butt of the gun so that it was loaded, but with no bullet in the barrel, before he put it back in his coat pocket.

"You know her?" he asked Hitomi, eyeing the cat-girl warily. He still didn't like her, and judging from the glare she was giving him, the feeling was mutual.

Hitomi nodded. "Chrno, this is Merle- the one I told you about, remember?" Chrno thought back and remembered her saying that Merle was a childhood friend of Van. He could certainly see why- they were both of the 'attack first, ask questions later' variety. "Merle, this is Chrno- he's a friend." Chrno was surprised that she was still vouching for him after what he had just put her through.

Merle did not look convinced. "But he attacked you, Hitomi- I saw it! You touched him and it was like he sucked out your soul-"

"I'm fine- no really, Merle," Hitomi quickly interrupted her, an embarrassed look upon her face. Suddenly, she smiled. "But thank you for worrying about me." Merle looked taken aback by this show of gratitude, then looked away.

Before Chrno could analyze this strange relationship between the two girls, something caught his attention. "Hey, d'you two hear that?" he asked. Merle's ears perked up and she listened intently, while all Hitomi could do was shrug.

"Sounds like… something big flying," Merle said.

"A Zaibach floating fortress?" Hitomi asked nervously. The cat girl shook her head.

"No, no. Those have more of a humming sound, since they're so slow and big. Whatever it is, it's a lot smaller and faster. I think we should-"

"Hey! You there!" A voice from above them shouted, and they all looked to see where it was coming from. Chrno could not believe his eyes. Standing on a rocky ledge above them stood a man in what Chrno could've sworn was old-fashioned medieval armour. He was the one shouting at them. "Who are you, and where's your authorization?"

"Dammit!" Merle hissed. "We've been spotted- run!" and with that, she bounded over the rocks until she, like Van, had disappeared from view.

Meanwhile, more armoured soldiers had heard the shouting of their fellow and had come to investigate. Before Hitomi and Chrno could escape, they found themselves surrounded by a dozen or more heavily armed men.

"Don't worry, Van will rescue us," Hitomi whispered to Chrno as they were being lead, shackled, down to the valley where the bulk of the armoured soldiers were. It seemed to be their camp. "Oh, I'm going to _kill _Merle." She moaned and was jabbed in the back hard with the butt of a spear by one of their captors. She took the hint and didn't speak for the rest of the trip.

Chrno's mind was working furiously. The amount of Astral energy he had taken from Hitomi had not been much- enough for a half hour, tops. Then the horrible pain would begin again, and he would most likely die. He needed to find a way to get out of here and find some Astral energy-

His thoughts were interrupted as both he and Hitomi were stopped and shoved harshly to their knees. "We found these trespassers over by Pillock Mine, Ma'am. There was another one, but she escaped- we're still looking for her. What do you want done with these two?"

'_Ma'am?'_ Chrno's head jerked up. A woman stood there clad in a silver body suit that covered everything except her face and upper thighs, which were clad in mid-thigh grey-leather boots, looking almost like an older version of Merle- the same catlike ears, the same black bands around her face and tail. Only colour and length of her silvery hair was different. She looked down at him and took his chin in her hand. She studied him with cool blue eyes, taking in his odd clothes, his long purple hair, and read the defiant expression in his blood red eyes.

"They can go with the other one until Lord Folken arrives," she told the soldiers, releasing Chrno. "Good job. Oh, and call off the search for the other one- she won't have gotten very far, and even if she has, she won't be able to do anything. She is of no concern to us."

"Yes, Miss Eriya!" The guard bowed and hustled the prisoners past the woman, where, Chrno could see, a figure in a red shirt had his wrists bound above his head and attached to a long rope that connected to a piece of wood some ten feet above him, which was connected to two sturdy planks of wood, one on either side. Hitomi gasped. "Van!" she cried.

It was not a pretty sight. Evidently Van had been captured some time before, as he was sporting a black eye and a bloody lip. His head, which had drooped forward, jerked upright when he heard Hitomi. It was as if someone had lit a fire under him- all at once he was jerking at the rope, trying to free himself.

"Now, now," a female voice said smoothly, and from the shadows behind Van stepped a figure that Chrno knew at once was Eriya's sister- though her fur was coloured gold as opposed to silvery-grey and her eyes had a warm, pinkish tinge to contrast her sister's cool blue irises, there was no mistaking it. "We wouldn't want to you overstrain yourself, would we, Lord Van?" she asked rhetorically.

She made her way over to Hitomi and, like her sister did with Chrno, cupped Hitomi's chin in her hand, turning her head left and right, up and down. "You made quite the fuss when you saw we'd captured this girl," she said over her shoulder. "Tell me, Lord Van, what is she worth to you? Perhaps telling us just _what _brought you here?" She let go off Hitomi's face. "Bah. Chain them like the other one. Lord Folken should be here soon to greet his dear little brother. See you later," she called over her shoulder as she headed towards the encampment.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 11

"Shit!" Edward whispered to himself as the door closed. He sprang from his hiding place and over to the door, light on his feet as a gazelle and was there within three graceful bounds, passing the pile of gasoline-soaked rags that were already catching fire, allowing the vengeful force to spread quickly along the trail of puddles of accelerant spilled on the floor. There was no way to unlock the door from inside the room. _'What the hell kinda door doesn't have a tumbler on the inside!' _he thought in disgust. He pulled his gloved right hand back, ready to bring it forward like a battering ram.

"Don't!" Meryl cried, catching his arm. "That door used to be a bulkhead from a downed Ship! It's over a foot thick- it took a laser-cutter to get through it, and you think _punching _it will get us out of here?"

Edward didn't have time to argue. He looked around frantically for an alternative exit and saw one in a small window about seven feet from the ground at the back of the room. Grabbing Meryl's arm, he hurriedly dragged her over to it, coughing as he went through the smoke. The fire was spreading quickly. If they didn't get out now, they weren't going to. He snatched a nearby empty oil drum and used it to boost himself till he was eyelevel with the window. Quickly he smashed the filthy pane from the frame, letting in a hot acrid breeze and fresh air. Reaching down, he grabbed Meryl again by the arm and hauled her bodily up onto the drum and then boosted her through the window. "Go, go!" he urged her as she wiggled through the opening and he was rewarded with a _thud_ as she hit the ground outside the window.

Edward looked at the small fit uneasily. If it was a tight fit for her, it was going to be nearly impossible for him. He let all the air out of his lungs to make himself as small as possible and grabbed the edge of the window, slicing open his left palm in the process. Paying the wound no heed, he managed to get himself through the window.

Once outside, he and Meryl made a dash for it, away from the Café. They turned as they heard an explosion, and then another an instant later. Meryl raised a hand to her face in horror. "Oh my God," She whispered weakly. "The extra fuel tanks- we stored them in that room… the fire must've reached them…" The Café was now burning on the outside, as well as the inside, and she fell to her knees, her gaze fixed on the sight in front of them, eyes brimming over with tears. "Five years of work… gone…"

Gently, Edward put his hand on her shoulder. "Meryl, I'm sorry for your loss. But we need to get out of here. Come on, we have to g-"

Suddenly a thought struck her, and her tears no longer fell. "Millie!" She cried, "Oh my God, Al- the apartment we share is right above the café, and that's where the kids are! We have to save Millie and the kids!" She yelled, preparing to dash back to her burning home when a hand, bloody and bruised, latched onto her shoulder, stopping her. She looked incredulously at 'Al's' stony face. "Al- what…"

"We can't." He said, his hard gaze boring into her. "I now this sounds cold and heartless, but right now Damian thinks we're dead, and until we can use that to our advantage, he has to keep thinking that. Now, I have a friend's place where we can go and hide, but-"

He was stopped with a hard slap to his cheek. "Y-you monster! How can you put yourself over the welfare of someone else like that! Do what you want, but I have to save Millie!" With that, she turned and almost dashed away before Edward, using his left hand, gently pinched a nerve in the middle of her neck. She slumped like a sack of grain, and he hoisted her over his shoulder. He had picked up _that_ little maneuver from a guy in a bar once, a few years after he arrived in Rosette's world. Ever since, Edward considered the payment, a round of beers, to be the best damn investment he made since he arrived in that alien place.

He faced the building, which by this time was almost totally consumed by flames. "Rosette, take care of yourself." He said quietly. From what he had already seen of the girl, he knew that she would turn the situation around for the better. But for right now, he needed to disappear in order to plan his next strategy. He had a stake in this now- someone was going around impersonating him and committing murders, and before he left this forsaken desert planet he was going to find out _who, why, _and _how._ To do that, he needed information, which was not something he was going to be able to find out at Eden.

But for right now, he needed to take the unconscious girl and himself into hiding. With that in mind, he set off towards the dunes.

* * *

"Hey," Rosette said suddenly, breaking the uneasy silence that had prevailed for nearly twenty minutes. She sniffed the air. "Do you smell that? Smells like smo-" 

She was interrupted by to loud _BOOM_s, one right on the heels of the other. A massive wave of heat rolled over them, so strong it swept them off their chairs; so hot Rosette could feel her eyebrows sizzle.

She looked up and saw the Typhoon Café in flames, the roar of the fire mixing with the terrified screams of the people still inside. Rising from the ground where the shockwave had left her, she was preparing to launch a flying kick at the door when she saw a blur out of the corner of her eye. EVE ran through the door as if it were made of paper. Rosette hurried inside after her, not about to be undone by the likes of _her._

Everything was louder now that she was inside, and the dense, acrid smoke made her lungs burn with every breath she took into her lungs. She collected enough oxygen to shout, "Okay everyone, through this door!" before a violent coughing fit brought her to her knees. Between chest-wracking coughs she could hear EVE giving orders.

"Okay, you heard her! I want one line, single-file, calmly walking through the front door here! If you panic, no one's going to get out of here alive. _DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?_" she bellowed. The huddled mass of about twenty people followed EVE's directions to the letter and made it safely out of the doomed Café.

Her coughing fit subsided, Rosette looked around for any stragglers and saw none. As she was preparing to leave, she heard a faint coughing sound from the stairwell leading to the second floor. She hurried over to the stairs and saw the waitress that had served them, Millie, lying on the stairs and hacking up a storm from the smoke that was now thick as London fog. Putting Millie's arm around her neck, Rosette helped her to her feet. "M-my _(hack, hack, cough)_ babies are upstairs," Millie whispered. "I have to _(cough)_ get them."

Rosette's blood ran cold when she heard that. Motioning EVE over, she told the Personality to take Millie outside. Honouring their unspoken (and temporary) truce, EVE did as Rosette asked without a word, easily supporting most of the big girl's weight. Rosette ran up the stairs.

The smoke was much thicker up here, and most everything was on fire. Putting a hand to her face in a futile effort to filter out the airborne carbon, Rosette called out, "Kids! Kids, it's time to go!"

She could hear a faint voice answer in the room directly to her right. "Help! Help, we're in here!" She tried the door, and to her great relief it was unlocked. She opened the door and the backdraft nearly launched her back down the stairs backwards and head first. She managed to get into the room and close the door again.

She immediately saw them. They were lying in beds beside each other, and looked to be twins, a boy and a girl about seven years old. There was a plague above each of their beds: The boy's read _Daniel,_ while the girl's said _Diana._

"Come on! We have to go!" She urged, heading back out the doorway. She stopped and turned back inside. The kids hadn't moved and were staring at her with almost impossibly huge eyes. "What?" she said, exasperated. "We have to _go!_"

"Mom told us never to go anywhere with anyone we don't know," the little girl, Diana, said, clutching her blanket to her chest.

"Yeah," piped in Daniel, holding his teddy bear.

Rosette sighed. She kneeled down in the space between the two beds, more or less eye level with them. _'This is insane. The damn _house_ is burning down, and they're worried about whether to go with me or not!'_ In any other situation, it might have been considered 'cute'. "Okay, Daniel, Diana," Rosette said, "I'm Sister Rosette. Your mother sent me to get you guys outside to safety." She eyed them cautiously. "_Now_ can we get out of here?"

The twins looked at each other and then back at her, and in perfect unison nodded their heads. She scooped up them up under her good arm and turned towards the doorway when she heard a sickening _crash_. A beam had fallen down the stairs, effectively blocking their only exit.

They were trapped.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Danny! Didi!" Millie screamed hysterically, tears falling unheeded down her cheeks. EVE had managed to get the tall, solidly built woman out of the burning café, and was currently occupied keeping her from charging back in after her kids. She was fighting a losing battle as the panicked mother slowly but surely towards the fire and certain death, clawing at the air in front of her as if it would get her closer to her children. EVE looked up watched anxiously as the flames seemed to climb higher and higher on the building, seeming to multiply. Millie finally collapsed a few meters away from the door, dissolving into sobs as she realized that the odds were heavily against her children coming out of this alive.

While EVE was staring at the fire, she thought she saw something twinkling flying from the second-floor window. Her processors had just registered it to be broken glass when she saw something else come out of there; a large black blob sailed through the flames and smoke and landed in a heap right in front of EVE and the grieving mother.

"MOMMY!" The blob yelled, as it split into three, two soot-covered parts leaping up and latching on to Millie. She looked at them in stunned amazement and then hugged them so hard EVE was sure their necks would snap from the strain. "Danny! Didi! You're all right! I was so worried- I thought I had list you… I- I…" She stammered, tears of joy flowing freely from her eyes.

EVE turned away from this happy little scene to examine the remaining third lump, which was lying on the ground and seemed to be attempting to clear the smoke from her lungs by trying to bring one up. The blue dress she had been so ecstatic about only a little while earlier was now beyond help- ripped, torn and covered in soot.

"Urrgh." Rosette said from the ground. EVE helped her into a sitting position. "I hate kids," Rosette whispered to her with a smile, "but I'm glad they're okay."

As EVE noticed that a good chunk of the hemming was missing from the once blue dress, she heard Millie say, "What are these?" EVE turned to see Millie remove two rough pieces of sapphire cloth that had been tied around their faces to filter out the carbon from the smoke and the tiny slivers of glass when they went through the window.

"Sister Rosette put them on us! Aren't they neat?" Danny cried. He snatched his back and put it around his face again. "Lookit me, I'm a bandit!" he cried, running around in a circle.

"Daniel Nicholas Brian Albus Thompson-Wolfwood!" Millie yelled, hands on her hips. "You stop that yelling right now! What if the Red Rogues hear you?"

"Who?" Rosette asked.

Somewhere along the line the Sheriff and volunteer fire department had arrived on the scene, and they were escorted across the road so the fire fighters could get to work, though they had arrived too late- the fire had already nearly burnt itself out. Millie watched them shovel sand onto the flames still guttering in the charred and blackened corpse of what used to be her home before answering.

"The Red Rogues are thugs and outlaws," Millie said in a tired voice, "and probably the ones who set the café on fire. I hope Meryl got out alive…"

At the mention of Millie's friend, something clicked in both EVE's and Rosette's heads as they whipped around to stare at each other. "Edward!" They exclaimed in unison.

"Eh? What's that?" A fire fighter that was standing nearby asked. "Sorry ma'ams, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation- are you saying that your friend was trapped inside when the building caught fire?" At Rosette's and EVE's nods, he shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, but there's no way he could've gotten through that. That was the worst fire I've ever seen- and I've been doing this plum near twenty years. If your friend was inside the building, he's only ash now."

A section near the back of the café flared up again. While the fire fighters rushed to put out this new blaze the machinery in Rosette's mind ground to a halt. If Edward was dead, that meant that the red water, her ticket home, was gone- that she was stuck here, in this hell, for the rest of her life.

Rosette dimly heard muted shouting, as though it were a long way off. A shot rang out and they all ducked, Rosette instinctively reaching for her gun, which she remembered was no longer on her hip. As the shouting got closer, Rosette decided to sort out whether she was going to live here forever later and focus on merely staying alive at the moment. She did not stick around to find out if the shouters were the shooters, but grabbed Millie's hand and ran for her life, EVE scooping up the children and following suit.

Meanwhile the two people who were supposed to be dead had found themselves back in town, having doubled back through a roundabout route through the sand dunes until they could be reasonably sure that the heat had died down, no pun intended. Meryl had by this time woken up and had accepted the fact that there was no going back. They had managed to scrounge some old brown cloaks with hoods that covered up his blood-red coat and her white one. Her sea-green-with-white-polka-dots apron had been fashioned into a sort of scarf to cover her black hair, and Edward had untied his braid to let the hair fall loose around his shoulders. As of now they looked like a poor harried housewife and her ugly daughter, as long as you didn't get to close.

"I have some friends that will put us up for the night," Meryl whispered to him. She fell silent as a group of people passed in front of them. When they were gone, she continued, "we can use their place as a base of operations-" She stopped and looked up at him. "Al, are you listening to me?"

He was not. Rather, he was staring at a young girl- she couldn't have been older than eighteen, and that was stretching it- who was standing over on the next street corner smoking a cigarette. Scantily clad in short-shorts and a shirt that just barely covered her breasts, her tired eyes and heavy makeup told Edward she was a bona-fide practitioner of the oldest profession in the world- prostitution. He broke into an all-out, nothing-to-lose insane run towards her, Meryl hot on his heels, wondering why in hell he was choosing _now _of all times to decide he had to get his rocks off.

By some cruel quirk of fate, the girl chose at that moment to glance in their direction. Her eyes widened and she dashed away, incredibly quickly for someone so tiny.

"Hey! Wait!" Edward yelled after her. She darted down a darkened alley, and Edward had just reached the mouth of it to see her climb up and over a wooden fence that stood about halfway down it. He didn't even stop- one swing of his right arm blew the rotted old wood away in a hole big enough for him to leap through.

He came out in the center of town, standing in the middle of a main road amidst what appeared to be dozens of nooks, crannies and alleys that could conceal a mal-nourished young girl. Venting his frustration, he kicked the wall beside him… with his human foot. Jumping up and down on the other one and clutching his injured foot, he heard a distinct giggle coming from his right. He turned and there she was, standing at the mouth of an alley on the other side of the road just ahead of him.

Seeing she'd been made, she turned tail and dashed down the passage. Edward decided not to give chase. He turned around to see a very angry Meryl glowering at him. Despite the height difference, he was acutely aware of how much damage she could do to him.

"_Now _can we go to my friend's place?" She asked.

"Jack!" Rosette called as she opened the door to the auto body shop. EVE and the others followed, though more demurely. "Jack! Where are you? We need your help!"

"Eh!" a voice yelled, followed by a crash. Behind the counter in front of them a door leading to a side room, presumably his sleeping quarters opened and Jack stuck his head out.

"Whozat? Whozere?" He asked groggily. His tired eyes focused on Rosette. "Why, miss Rosette! What a pleasant surprise. Back from your shopping trip already?" He stepped out from the doorway into the reception room where they were standing, clutching a bottle of Wild Turkey in his robot hand. Rosette thought he had bathed in the stuff, the smell was so strong. He eyed her burnt and ripped gown. "If I were you, I'd ask for an exchange!" He guffawed at his own joke.

Rosette, however, did not have time to laugh. "Jack, this woman-" she indicated Millie and her family- "has just lost her home, and there's people after us. We need the _Angela_ to-." She was stopped by the shaking of his head.

"No can do, ma'am." The old mechanic said apologetically. "The _Angela _is Eric's, not mine, and I can't give permission to let you drive her-"

"What!" Rosette shrieked. "These people's _lives_ are in danger, and you won't even let use that old beater? Why you heartless, arrogant old-"

"Now, now," Jack said calmly, "you didn't let me finish. I said I couldn't give you the _Angela_ because it's not mine. But there are plenty of cars I _do _own, and you're welcome to use any one of them," he said with a grin.

"-Kind, thoughtful, _wonderful_ man, you," Rosette finished. After telling EVE to find take Millie and hide in the auto body shop while she went out to locate 'Eric' (who was the only one who could navigate in the desert and thus be able to get them to Eden safely until the Red Rogues stopped looking for them) she followed him to the back room where he, like Vash, kept a multitude of vehicles in various states of repair. He made a beeline straight for one that was under a tarpaulin, preventing Rosette from making out what kind of shape it was in. With a flourish, Jack whipped back the cover to show a beautifully restored motorcycle. Rosette could feel her eyes bugging out almost to the point where they popped out of her skull. Jack walked around it, strutting like a peacock and she followed, trailing a hand along its smooth casing. She was in awe of such a mechanical masterwork. Black body with silver wings painted all the length of the body, where the wings would connect to the body painted on the sides of the front wheel to the where the very tips of the wings met just behind the back seat where the motorcycle's passenger would sit.

"A vintage 1999 Orange County Chopper -one the first ones they ever produced-, painted jet-black with enough horsepower to pull this deadbeat planet into a new orbit." Jack explained proudly. "I touched up the engine and the paintjob and was so in love with her I nearly sold the business to be able to afford her. Long story short I got her, plus a second mortgage and a hernia because of the amount of money I had to fork over. But I'm not complaining. She's my pride and joy. I call her the _Athena._"

With difficulty, Rosette tore her eyes away from the beautiful machine and thought she saw an amused smile on the cagey old mechanic's face. She couldn't be sure, however, as he turned away and said, "Here we go, the _Sleipnir_." He walked over to a regular town car parked beside the bike. While in top notch condition and a thousand times better than the _Angela_, it was no _Athena._ Rosette couldn't help shooting a look of longing towards the goddess-like motorcycle before clamping her mind down on the task at hand and climbing into the _Sleipnir's _driver seat. As she was preparing to back out, she looked at Jack. "Why is it you and Vash- er, _Eric_, name your cars?"

Jack looked at her. "It's good luck, is all," he said. "Besides, don't _you _name the things you love?"

Rosette drove off without another word, pondering the meaning behind the words. She didn't notice a man on the rooftop of a nearby salon watching her, nor did she see him pull out a walkie-talkie and call for backup.

"I _still_ can't believe you did that." Meryl muttered. "After all that talk about having to go on the move, keeping a low profile, you run off and-"

"Is this the place?" Edward asked as they stopped in front of a single-story bungalow. It seemed to be a hotel of some sort- there was a sign that proclaimed it to be the _Atlantis Motel- the Lost City of Comfort._ It would have been prudent to say the place had seen better days, but Edward was quite sure in his gut that it hadn't. Meryl nodded, almost as if reading his mind.

"It's not the Ritz, but the owner owes me a favour." She said. She banged on the door. Loudly.

"Lina! Get the door already! We got customers!" They heard a man's voice inside shout.

"All right! I'm getting it old man, so shut up about it!" a girl's voice replied, and a moment later the door opened, and Edward was standing face-to-face with the girl he'd chased earlier.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"_Van. We have Merle. Please come out, I do not want to harm her."_ Van's brother Folken's voice rang out through the canyon.

Van stood motionless for a moment, then with a shudder snapped out of his reverie. "Hitomi," he said, still looking straight ahead, as if he could see where his older brother held captive the girl he had always thought of as a younger sister. "You and the stranger hide in the gully. I'm taking Escaflowne and getting Merle back."

"No, Van!" She cried, grasping his arm. "It's too dangerous. You'll get hurt, or captured, and then what will happen?"

Van's fierce glare softened as he looked at her. "Hitomi, she's been like a sister to me for as long as I can remember. I cannot, _will_ not, allow him to harm her. She's stayed by me through more than anyone else. I can at least do the same for her."

Hitomi nodded as if she'd made up her mind. "Fine. Then I'm coming with you."

Van was taken aback by her boldness and tried to dissuade her from it. "No, Hitomi. It's not your fight. This is between my brother and I." He hesitated, then added, "Besides-"

"I'll get hurt?" she asked him skeptically. "In case you've forgotten, _Your Majesty,_ I was the one who saved your life a dozen times from getting killed, with my visions. So don't you _dare_ say that I can't defend myself, Van." She finished.

Van, seeing that the only way he could get her to stay was to tie her up, nodded and walked back into the gully, Hitomi close behind. Chrno hesitated a moment, and then followed.

The gully itself was pitch black against the brightening sky. Chrno, his hand against the wall to guide him, almost fell twice and once he put his foot into something soft, smelly and altogether unpleasant. At that point he was rather glad for the darkness, so he wouldn't see just _what_ he'd stepped in.

As his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, Chrno could make out what he first thought was a white whale in front of him as he walked closer to it. He could see a flash of red- Van, he supposed- jump onto it along with Hitomi. She reached down and helped him on, his one arm still wrapped around his chest.

"Hold on," she whispered to him. Suddenly he felt the thing underneath him lurch and then they were off, soaring into the brightening dawn. Keeping his eyes nearly shut from the powerful wind, Chrno saw in the morning light that what he'd at first thought was a whale was actually something far different, though perhaps no less rare.

He was riding a dragon. A huge white dragon, easily double, maybe triple the length of any car he had ridden in with Rosette. In the hanging on for dear life in both instances were not so different from each other. Hitomi looked back and saw Chrno looking at what was carrying him. Shouting against the wind, she said, "This is Escaflowne."

Van said nothing as they flew out of the gully towards the encampment they had been captured in. If Folken were anywhere, it would be there. It was the only place where the huge Flying Fortress could set down.

Chrno, meanwhile, was too caught up in his own trouble to worry about Van much. Even though it was foolish, Chrno had been hoping that Rosette would be here, in the first world he'd come across. He'd even directed the Gate to send him to where she was, and it-

Chrno groaned. Now that he thought about it, he _didn't _ask the gate to send him to Rosette specifically, but _the girl outside of her own world._ Chrno hadn't thought there'd be more than one, but the Gate evidently brought him to this place because there was a girl who was outside of her own world here: Hitomi.

Before he could bemoan his mistake any more, Van announced, "There it is." He pointed down below them, and Chrno thought they were looking at a mountain. Then he began recognizing the area around it and realized that there was nothing there a few hours ago. He thought that the Flying Fortress was aptly named- not even the hosts of Hell could break through that thing.

Van landed the dragon a short ways away from the gigantic stronghold. Hitomi slid off of it, and Chrno followed suit. Van remained in the pilot's seat and called, "Brother, come out! We're here, now complete your part of the bargain!"

From the vast black expanse of the ship that dwarfed them a small, narrow shaft of light appeared, silhouetting a tall man. As he stepped into the new dawn light, Chrno noticed his blue hair and a tattoo of a teardrop on his cheek. He was carrying in his arms the girl with the cat ears, as still and limp as death.

Van saw her too, and gave a strangled yell as he leapt off of Escaflowne, his hand going to his sword, preparing to draw it from its sheath and run it through the man.

"Hold, Van," the man said with a quiet authority in his voice that made Van stop where he was, looking uncertain. Folken shook his head.

"You should know by now, Van, that I would not do anything to harm you, including hurting Merle. We had to sedate her because she tried to claw my men's eyes out. She will awake in a few hours." He set her down gently on the ground and stepped back.

They stood like that for a moment, a tableaux of impasse; the wind rustling Van's hair and blowing forward the newcomer's cloak towards the sleeping figure between them, neither wanting to break the stalemate for fear of exposing their back to the other, while the tension between them grew. Then Van walked over, lifted her up, and backed up to his position a moment before. He eyed his brother warily.

"I merely want you by my side as my brother again, Van," Folken said. "Why can you not understand that?"

"Because, _Brother,_ it is because of _you_ that Fanelia burned. It was because of _you _Mother left all those years ago after Father died, to search for you because you ran away during your Kingsmaking Rite, leaving me without a father, mother, _or_ brother." Van replied, unheeded tears falling down his cheeks. "All those years I thought that you had died, that that was the reason you never returned home, even when the rest of Fanelia labelled you a coward. And you know what? _I wish you had died._" With that, Van turned around and walked away from his brother, back towards the Escaflowne, Merle slumbering in his arms.

"I do too, Van." Chrno heard Folken reply as he turned away. "I do, too."

Suddenly the ground rocked underneath them. "An earthquake-?" Chrno said, even as Hitomi pointed into the sky and shrieked "Zaibach!"

Chrno's head snapped up, but all he could see were clouds, ears ringing from the blast. The sky was empty. Chrno looked at Folken who had whirled around at the noise. He was mouthing something like a name- it was no word Chrno knew. Just then the ground rocked again with the force of a second explosion, this one closer than the last.

"Damn it! They're invisible!" Van shouted. He thrust Merle at Chrno. "Take Merle and hide. Hitomi, you're going to have to come with me- you're the only one who can sense where they are." Hitomi nodded and ran, following Van to the dragon.

Chrno ran to find a tunnel to stick the still-unconscious Merle into when a line of fire shot across the path in front of him and swept around, creating a giant ring of fire that he was trapped in. He turned and from out of nowhere stepped a huge, hulking purple giant with its arm outstretched, claws like wicked scythes extending from it like grotesque caricatures of fingers.

"Prepare to die, little man," the giant said as it lunged towards him.


	13. Chapter 14

Chapter 13

Just as the girl was about to slam the door on their faces, Edward grabbed it with his gloved right hand. "Please," he said, "All we want is a room."

While the girl was struggling with Edward to close the door, a very large man with a full, bushy beard (possibly to compensate for the lack of hair on the top of his head) stepped into view to see who was at the door. When he saw Meryl, his face broke out into a craggy grin.

"Meryl!" he cried, pulling open the solid-oak door as easily as if it were cardboard, knocking the girl to the ground in the process. She got up and glared at his back, then ran into a nearby room and shut the door. The man didn't seem to notice as he wrapped Meryl in a huge bear hug.

"Macks- Macks! I can't breathe!" she croaked. Realizing his error, the huge bear of a man stepped back a pace and allowed her to catch her breath. "Sorry, Meryl," he said, "You know how I always forget."

Once Meryl had regained the ability to breathe (and surreptitiously checked for any broken ribs) she said, "Macks, I'd like you to meet Al. Al, meet Mackey Norman, an old friend of mine, and owner/patron of the Atlantis and the bar beside it, the Soused Pearl."

"Call me Macks," he said, shaking Edward's hand. For one of the many times in his life, Edward was glad his hand was metal- otherwise he was sure that there wouldn't be one left when Mack was finished shaking it. "Meryl here got me out of a real jam a few years ago." Macks stated. "She gave me a roof over my head and enough money for the down payment on this place."

"Could we come in, please?" Meryl asked, blushing at the show of gratitude. Macks led them to his office/quarters, a large room with its own small kitchen and bathroom adjoined. Meryl and Edward sat down at a table in front of the main portion of the room. "You guys hungry?" he asked. At their enthusiastic nods, he went into the kitchen.

After they had devoured the bacon, eggs and hash browns he had whipped up for them and were sipping coffee, he sat down across from Meryl. "All right," he said, "One of the things about an 'establishment' like this place that keeps it on its feet- the 'No-tell' part is as important as the 'motel'. But in this case I gotta break policy and ask: Meryl, ya know I love ya and am always happy to see you- but what the hell happened to land you on my doorstep in at prime Café business time?"

And so Meryl told him- about 'Al' rescuing her from the hands of Damien, about how they had hid in the storage room, how they'd been smoked out and had taken cover in the dunes. Meryl had left out the part of Edward chasing the girl down the alleyways for her own reasons, but Edward was glad. After excusing himself to go to the washroom he crept down the hall till he got to the room the girl had fled into. He knocked quietly.

"Just a minute," he heard her call, and he was shocked by the hoarseness of her voice- she sounded closer to ninety than the eight- or nineteen she looked. When she opened the door a thick cloud of smoke blew into his face and he bent over, coughing. When he regained composure he stood back up again and the cigarette dangled precariously from her mouth as it dropped open in recognition of the guy who'd chased her through the streets earlier in the day. Before she could close the door on him, he held up some money that Vash had given him. "Please, I just want to talk."

She eyed him warily. Then, shrugging as if to say, 'You can't do anything worse to me than what's already been done,' she stepped aside and allowed him to enter the room, closing the door behind him. It was a small room, big enough for a cot and a small desk. She mumbled something.

"Sorry?" Edward asked.

"I _said_, fifty will get you an hour," she repeated, holding up the money in her hand, "and an extra fifty will get you the entire night. I'll do anything you want, but anything past the usual will be extra." She stated in a business-like tone. She tucked the money into her pants and sat down on the bed. "So, what do you want to start off?"

Edward's face turned red as he realized she was asking what sexual act he wanted in the same tone one would associate with discussing the discount on a bushel of apples. "Uh, nothing- I just came to talk." Again, the shrug. Edward was beginning to realize that this was going to be tough.

"So… what's your name?" he asked.

She gave him a cold look before replying, "Lina."

Edward mentally swallowed. He looked around the room. "Nice place you got here." Lina snorted. This was getting him nowhere.

"So, how long have you been… working?" he asked.

"What, as a hooker? Why do you want to know?" she asked him. He merely shrugged. After studying him intently for a moment, she said, "About two years, now." Then, softly, "I was an orphan, and my Grandma Sheryl took me in and raised me in Bleu, the next town over. Life was hard, sure, but somehow we always got by."

For a moment the last two years melted away from her face and Edward glimpsed the girl she had been- tough, yes, but one who could laugh and sing and play. It was in this moment, even more so than when he had first seen her that she was the girl he'd lost all those years ago, the certainty that sent him chasing her down the streets and alleyways.

Then the cynical look returned to her face and the gleam died from her eye. The professional was back in the driver's seat. "When Grandm Sheryl died I had no place to go, so when a guy offered to pay me to spend the night with him, I figured, why not?" She eyed her customer. "So, now you know. Now lemme ask _you_ a question, Blondie: do you get off on hearing sob stories or something? Why did you want to know?"

Edward knew if he was going to succeed here, he'd have to risk alienating her. _''Equivalent exchange,'_ he thought. _'Oh, the irony.'_ He took off his coat, the long-sleeved white shirt and black vest overtop of it remaining- for the moment. Lina snorted.

"'All I want to do is talk,' he says," she muttered, rolling her eyes. Edward took off the open black vest and began to unbutton his shirt until. "All you men are the sa-" However, her attitude dropped once he removed the shirt. She gasped as she ran a hand over the automail arm. "Its _beautiful,_" she breathed as she ran a hand along the smooth metal. "May I?" she asked, looking up and Edward nodded , a bit embarrassed. With a strength that belied her small form, she lifted the heavy arm up to examine it better. "It's all cogs and gears- his was cybernetics, but still… Did you make it yourself?" She asked in wonder. He nodded.

"Does it look familiar? You said something about someone else having an arm like mine."

"Yeah. One day when Grandma Sheryl was still alive, I guess I was around twelve at the time, a stranger came from out of nowhere to stay with us as a hired hand. He could make us laugh until our sides split with his- I guess you'd call it _dorkyness_, the way he always seemed to make things harder for himself. He'd do anything for Grandma Sheryl and me… Then one day he up and left, saying it was for our safety cause he had some bad men after him…I never forgave him for it." She smiled sadly at him. "I'm sorry, I'm just turning into a babbling fool."

He grinned. "It's all right- evidently I get off on this kinda stuff, right?" She laughed. The silence afterwards was awkward, but at least she was no longer openly hostile. Edward thought this would be a good time to pop the question.

"Tell me," he said, turning so his left shoulder faced her, "Do you know what this is?" Tattooed on his shoulder was a curious symbol. It consisted of two circles, one within the other, with three equilateral triangles arranged so that all three pointed straight down, the points- the bottom one of the bottom triangle, the left one of the top-right triangle and the right of the top-left one- overlapped the sides of the larger circle so that, even though each triangle only had one point outside the circle, together they created a larger triangle that transcended the circles, both large and small.

As if seeing the tattoo had flipped a switch, Lina suddenly looked angry. She furiously shoved Edward's clothes back at him. "Get out!" she yelled.

Edward was taken aback by the sudden change in behaviour. "Huh? What-"

"OUT, I said! Out out out!" she screamed. She seemed angry enough to kill, so Edward leapt for the door and got safely outside of it into the darkened hallway. He pulled the door shut behind him. That's where 'safe' ended.

Immediately he heard a _click!_ behind him. "Don't move, just put your hands up nice and slow, then turn around." He heard a rough voice say. He complied and saw Meryl bound and gagged on the floor of the gunman's feet. She didn't appear to be harmed, just upset. And Edward could see why.

For the man holding the gun was Macks.


	14. Chapter 15

Lina sank back onto the bed, the anger slowly seeping out of her to be replaced with an emotion that she thought she was inured to: Shock.

'_How?'_ she thought. _'How did he know the symbol?'_

Ever since Lina was a little girl, she had had nightmares. What separated her nightmares from other children's was that hers were always the same.

_(A smiling yellow-haired boy and a big tin man lay on their backs with her in the snow, making angels. She couldn't see the yellow-haired boy's face, or anything of the Tin Man except the gleam off his shiny body and two points of red light from his head. She felt… safe with these two odd people, and she knew as long as she was with them, nothing bad would hurt her or Alexander._'Alexander? Who's Alexander?' Lina would think. I don't know any Alexander's…_ "Look, Big Brother! An angel!" she cried giddily, flopping about in the snow. The fair-haired boy laughed._

"_Very good, Nina!" he said, tousling her hair with his left hand. "Would you like to see something neat?" He asked her. _

_For the first time, the Tin Man spoke. "Ed, I don't think we should…" _

"_Ah, come off it, Al," Ed said, grinning. "It won't hurt. Just think of it as further studying for the State Alchemist Exam- just with an audience." He began to draw an odd shape in the snow. He drew a large circle, and then a smaller circle within it. Then he drew three equal triangles, each with one point outside of the circles, spaced so that while they didn't touch each other, they seemed to form a larger triangle, one that was outside of the circles. "See this shape, Nina? It makes dreams come true.")_

At that point the dream would change. That part of the dream was one she always feared yet wanted to relive, for although it was a pleasant dream, it always brought with it the _other_ one.

_(She was standing in a basement in the center of an intricately drawn symbol on the floor, holding stroking the muzzle of a large dog. A middle-aged man with receding reddish hair and large rounded glasses reached down towards her saying, "Nina, would you do a favour for me?"_ _The dog she was petting let out a frightened whine, and she moved to comfort it. "It's okay, Alexander, Daddy wouldn't hurt us." She told the dog. It licked her face. _

"_That's a good girl, Nina. Just stand there in the circle with Alexander, I'm going to start now, so don't move, okay?" the man with the reddish hair said as he knelt down and touched his hands to the symbol. What followed next was not so much pain as an uncomfortable feeling of being twisted inside out and being sucked through a straw going on and on until she thought she was going to die, until it was worse then the pain, and she screamed._

_Then she could hear a voice, one that sounded so familiar, yet one she couldn't place. "I'm sorry, Nina. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you-"_

_Then the scene changed one last time, and she was in a darkened alleyway at night, where there stood a man in a yellow jacket. The man knelt and scratched her head. "You, like I, have been cursed by alchemy," he intoned. "I release you from your torment." A pinkish light came from his right arm, and then she felt nothing.) _

Sometimes silently jerking awake, sometimes with a scream of fright that would bring her grandma running to comfort her until her breathing slowed and she didn't shake with fear, but always in a cold sweat she would emerge from the awful dream. Thankfully over the years it had become less and less frequent, until instead of having it every couple of nights like she did when she was younger, it tapered off to once every couple of months or so. One thing still bothered her whenever she cast her mind upon it about the dream though: She did not know why they had all called her Nina instead of Lina. She had a feeling that if she knew that, the rest of the mystery would unveil itself. She was interrupted as the door opened.

* * *

"Now if I were him, where would I go?" Rosette mused to no one, alone in the sleek _Sleipnir_. She only hoped that she could get it safely back to Jack- it was such a work of art she knew he'd never forgive her if she handed it back to him with a scratch on it. She ticked each establishment off in her mind as she drove past it. "Lessee here… 'Murray & Ready's Tailoring?' Nope, he didn't look like he needed new clothes… 'General Store'- Naw, 'Saloon' Well, I'll check back there later… and even if he's not there, I can make sure its not a wasted trip- even if I am- tee hee."

She saw something in the middle of the street up ahead. The image was clearer as she got closer and saw, to the feeling of a sinking heart, it was a half-dozen men standing in a cluster, each of them with a rifle in his hands, and they were staring hungrily at her.

'_Not good-' _she had time to think before they opened fire. She ducked; the bullets sailed over her head, but now she had no control of the vehicle. It swerved to the right and was about to crash into the post office before she was able to bring it to a stop. Steam poured out of the engine block- they must've hit the carburetor, which meant she was sunk- no weapon, no vehicle and no chance. She was dragged out of the car and thrown on the ground. She wasn't going to end like this, she _wasn't!_ She still had to find her way home, save her little brother, and kill Aion- she was not going to be killed by some _punk _on another world. Just as she was tensing to spring at them, she heard a shot, and then another, then another- six shots in all. Each shot was punctuated by one of her would-be captors falling to the ground. Rosette huddled close to the ground, both hands, good and broken, over her ears as the thunderous shots roared over her head. She stayed close to the ground as the last blast echoed and died away.

They were still ringing in her ears when she noticed that large black boots blocked the ground in front of her face. She looked up and saw a hand outstretched towards her. She grasped it and was hauled not unkindly to her feet. He was dressed all in black- black boots, black pants, black leather jacket, black motorcycle helmet with the tinted visor down so she couldn't see his eyes, even black leather gloves that covered his hands into his sleeves so she couldn't see what complexion his skin was. In his other hand was a huge pistol that was- you guessed it- black, which he tucked back into a belt-holster.

'_Very mysterious,'_ she thought. Still, he'd be paying dearly for his mystery- wearing all that black, _especially_ with all the buttons buttoned and zippers zipped, not to mention that a good chunk of the outfit was leather, and it was a wonder he didn't keel over from the heat.

"Thank you for saving me," she said. The stranger nodded, almost as if he were saying, _"Don't mention it_._"_

"Why did you save me?" she asked. He shrugged, as if to say, _"You were in trouble."_

"How did you get here?" she pressed. He pointed to a black motorcycle that said _Kawasaki _on the side in white lettering. Well, she had to give him credit; this guy didn't half-ass anything- he shot all her guards, and was in all black.

'_Wait,'_ Rosette thought suddenly, _ 'if those guys were waiting for me, then they-'_ "Shit!" she swore softly. She looked for her saviour and saw he was already on his bike. "Um, I have to go to Jack's Auto Body Repair Shop- you know where that is, right?"

The man nodded.

" Okay, then if it's not too much to ask, could I hitch a ride with you?" she asked, "seeing as my car kinda broke down…" she eyed the steaming mess the car had become.

The man in black patted the seat behind him. She swung her leg over and clutched his stomach with her good arm. _'Damn,' _she thought. _'I wonder how many Hail Mary's _this_ is worth.' _"Sorry!" she shouted as gunned the engine, "I never caught your name!" Wordlessly as ever, he pointed to the side of the motorcycle. "Your name's_ Kawasaki?_" She asked. He shook his head and pointed again. Then she saw it: under the word _Kawasaki,_ which was printed on an upwards diagonal, was another word, printed in the usual left-to-right horizontal:

_Paladin._


	15. Chapter 16

Chapter 14

"Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist," Macks grinned. "You've made quite the name for yourself, I must say. And quite the bounty. Congratulations."

His gaze never left the grinning turncoat, but through the corner of his eye Edward glanced over at Meryl. She seemed to be momentarily stunned at revelation of his identity, for she had stopped trying to free herself.

"What are you planning to do with that gun?" he asked coolly. Macks laughed.

"This is insurance in case you don't co-operate." He said menacingly. All trace of the former joviality was gone, replaced by a cold malice. He motioned with the pistol towards the door of Lina's room. "In. Now."

"All right, all right," Edward said, opening the door and entering the room. "Just watch that thing, okay?" He looked embarrassedly at Lina as he entered, then turned his attention to Macks who followed behind carrying a struggling Meryl. "Really, we were going to pay for our stay here. Though I have to tell you, I've been in cleaner _slums_ than this place.

Macks scowled. "Shut up. If you had had the common decency to _die_ when you got blown to smithereens, I wouldn't have had to resort to this."

Lina, meanwhile, was looking between the two men as her hand crept slowly under the pillow of the bed, withdrawing a small object clenched in her fist, unnoticed.

The big man dropped Meryl to the floor in a heap, ignoring her muffled cry of pain as she hit the hard floorboards. "But then again," he said as he raised his gun directly at Edward's heart, "maybe this is a stroke of luck after all."

Edward stalled for time. "So, how big is this bounty?" he inquired. The longer he kept Macks talking, the longer he wouldn't shoot. He didn't look the type that could chew gum and walk at the same time. Besides, it would give his ego a boost to find out just how much he was worth dead.

Macks shrugged. "Enough for me to be able to close this hole and open up a casino, where the real money is.

"Don't get me wrong, Meryl did me a huge favour back in the day, and I'm grateful, but what she did _then _don't pay the bills _now, _know what I mean?" he continued, as Lina slowly brought her hands together in her lap, allowing the item she retrieved under her pillow to be accessible to both hands when the time came…

"Anywho, time for talking's over," Macks said, cocking the hammer of the gun back. "You're worth the same to Damien dead or alive, and I'd prefer you dead." His finger began to squeeze the trigger.

The time was now.

In a flash a marble-sized ball of paint shot out from Lina's custom-made slingshot. Forged from Ship-steel, it was lightweight and durable, and packed a wallop when within range. And Macks was most definitely in range in the cramped space.

Edward felt something small fly by his ear and the next second Macks was screaming in pain as royal blue suddenly appeared on his face, mixing in some spots with the red blood from his broken nose to create a sickly purplish colour. The gun was knocked off course at the last second and instead of the bullet piercing Edward's chest it ricocheted off of the metal chest plate that anchored his right arm and disappeared into the ceiling.

While Macks was still reacting to the pain, Edward delivered a hard punch with his right arm to his left temple. Macks went down like a ton of bricks. He untied Meryl and then turned towards Lina. "Thank you, Lina. If it weren't for you I'd be dead right now." He said.

She shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "Yeah, well, you're the only guy who can answer the questions I've got, and if I let him shoot you, I'd never know. Besides," she said, grinning. "You've still got most of that hour left."

Edward laughed.

"Chong!" a voice drifted into Jack Chong's Auto Body Shop from the dusty street outside. "Hey, Chong!"

Jack peered out of the closed blinds. EVE, Millie and the kids were sitting on hard wooden chairs, the only things in the repair shop's front foyer aside from a water cooler by the door and a low table covered with old newspapers. "Sorry buddy, I'm closed for the day! You're gonna have to come back tomorrow!"

The man laughed. "I ain't here for my car, dumbass. We want the two women you're hiding in that rat's nest." Suddenly the man pitched forwards to the ground. Behind him stood a man in a white shirt, red bandana blue jeans and a black leather coat, an expression of disgust on his face and holding the gun he just pistol-whipped the man with by the barrel. It was a huge, silver six-shooter revolver.

He put the gun back in his side-holster and reached into his breast pocket. It was not until after it was lit that the man spoke. "Sorry about that, Jack," he called. "Unfortunately, most of the men in my employ lack manners- they think they just need to bully to get what they want."

"What _do_ you want, Damien?" Jack asked suspiciously. He knew the leader of the Red Rogues, oh yes, ever since Damien wore red diapers. He was a local kid, one that many people, Jack included, wished they had enough foresight to prevent from being conceived.

Damien shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "As my associate so immodestly put it, we'd like the women you're aiding and abetting in there, please."

"It's only aiding and abetting if they've broken the law, Damien." Jack told him. There was no point in denying they were there- obviously Rosette had been followed.

A grin appeared on the younger man's face. "Oh, they broke the law all right," he said savagely, "They broke _my _law, which is punishable by death. Now hand them over, old man."

"And if I refuse?" Jack asked suspiciously.

Clearly enjoying this, Damien snapped his fingers. Instantly no less then twenty men armed with machine guns came out of hiding: there were some on the roof of the saloon across the street, behind trash bins, cars, buildings, all with their guns aimed at the shop. "I'll blow your rats nest to Kingdom Come. I've tried asking nicely, but now I'm telling you. Ya got five seconds. One."

"Shit!" Jack cursed as he scrambled away from the window. "Everyone, behind the desk!"

"Two."

Jack scooped up the two kids and dived behind the old oak desk where Millie and EVE were just ahead of the hail of bullets that blasted through the big picture window that made the front of the shop, reducing it and everything in the room to shards and rubble.

Damien threw back his head and laughed. '_Nothing could've survived that,'_ He thought triumphantly as he turned away, _'nothing.'_ Suddenly something whizzed past his ear, and the next second something fell off the roof of the saloon with a _thud_. A cursory glance showed it was one of his men, the back of his head missing. Damien whirled around.

As the dust from the destroyed repair shop settled on the ground, he peered into the gloom. In a room where everything had been demolished, stood Jack holding a shotgun. The old man laughed.

"Idiot!" he shouted. "I used to be in the Calvary- you think I wouldn't know how to protect myself?" He rapped something black about the same height as the desk that had once stood in its place. "This here's a plate of foot-thick steel I had installed for just such an occasion."

Damien lost it. He did not like to be wrong, and this crazy old bastard just corrected him in the worst possible way. "Well, what are you waiting for, fools? _SHOOT HIM!_" he cried.

There was a moment of silence, to which he looked around. "Sorry, Chief- we poured all our ammo into the shop. We've got nothing in reserves." One of his men- Clive- told him nervously. Damien turned slowly back towards the old man.

"Now," Jack said, leveling the shotgun at Damien, "Get the hell away from my store or I'll blow _you_ to Kingdom Come, ya little brat." Even from the middle of the street outside the demolished shop, Damien could hear the faint _"click!"_ of the gun being cocked.

Damien's mouth worked, but nothing came out. "We're going," he snapped to his men. They looked at each other but said nothing as they emerged from their various hiding places. A truck came out from one of the alleys and the Red Rogues began piling into the open back. Damien stood for a moment in the street and said, "It ain't over, old man- not by a long shot." Then he climbed onto the passenger side of the cab and they drove off.

Jack, turned away from the street to check on the girls. "Hoo-wee, that was close. You four all right-"

It all happened so fast. Jack fell forward, a dime-sized hole in his back. EVE turned him on his back, his head resting on her lap. He tried to say something, but nothing came out except a gurgle. He pointed outside the shop.

Striding towards them was Damien, the predator's smile firmly entrenched upon his face, the huge silver revolver in his hand, the barrel still smoking from the bullet it plugged into the old man while his back was turned.

"You should really listen to your betters, old man," the outlaw said. "I told it you it wasn't over, and you looked away from me while I was still a threat." Lifting his boot as though he were about to step on a bug, he brought it down as hard as he could on Jack's stomach. Jack moaned and he laughed.

"Stop it!" EVE cried. "Please, if you're going to kill him, kill him. But don't make him suffer anymore than you have." He crouched down to bring himself eye level with her, gun held loosely in his hand by his knee. If she could just grab it, it would turn the tide in their favour.

"Aw, now you're making me out to be a monster," he said, leering. "And in front of the little ones, too." He gestured towards them with the hand that held the gun, and Millie hugged her children tighter. With his other, he grabbed EVE's chin and looked into her eyes. Her olfactory receptors detected a high methane and tobacco content in his breath. If she could smell, she'd be gagging from the stench. "What's your name?"

"E- Evie," she said. Her real name being an acronym for what she was, she had to use an alias to keep her true nature hidden from this detestable man.

"Tell you what, Evie," he said, dropping his voice, each word dripping with charm and charisma. "You come with me, and I'll leave the girl and kids alone."

EVE hesitated. Even if she did comply, he could just simply shoot the others, if not here, then certainly when he found out there were certain things she couldn't perform. Still, it was their only option. "Deal."

His eyes lit up. "Great! I knew you were a smart girl." He held out his hand, which she took and stood up. Jack slid to the floor, another soft moan escaping him.

"Oh yeah, nearly forgot," Damien said. He aimed the revolver and shot the old man twice in the head. Millie began to scream. Damien just laughed as he holstered the revolver and dragged EVE with him to the truck, which they drove out into the night.


	16. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

EVE's core processor sank a bit in her torso when she saw where they were headed. Right in the middle of town, looking like a giant upside-down light bulb was the Azure City Plant, the source of electricity for the entire city. It stood in the middle of a barren circle, a few hundred yars across. There would be no cover for her should she attempt to run. She was trapped by open space.

It was so cruel it was funny.

* * *

"Dammit dammit _dammit!_" Rosette swore. She couldn't just leave the kids here alone, but if she didn't, they'd lose their mother and be alone anyway. 

'_Where the hell is Vash?'_ She thought.

As if on cue, she heard a groan, coming from a nearby pile of rubble. She ran over and saw Vash struggling to sit up. A large piece of what used to be one of the walls lay over his leg, effectively immobilizing it. Rosette thought she saw the Paladin stiffen when Vash came into view above the debris, but she couldn't be sure.

"Vash!" she called. He looked at her, and he seemed to be fine for having had a building fall on op of him. "It's an emergency- Millie's gone after the Red Rogues gang and I need to stop her, but I can't take her kids with me into a battlezone. Could you-"

"Of course. I'll look after them." Vash said, and moved the boulder off his leg with little apparent effort. "We'll be fine. Go."

Rosette nodded and ran to the motorcycle, where the Paladin was waiting. He was looking at Vash oddly- at least, she thought he was; she couldn't tell because of the tinted visor. Then they left, to try and save a life.

* * *

"Come on… come on…" Edward pleaded with the protesting engine as he tried to start the car. It was a sleek black model-A with a crap engine, the polar opposite of the _Angela_, the jalopy with the heart of chrome.

He knew which he liked better.

"Edward! Are you coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, in a min- _what is that?_" He shrieked.

"What's what?" Meryl asked, confused.

"THAT!" Edward clarified. He pointed at the beast she was straddled upon. Sitting on two massive bird legs with an elongated neck and big enough to sit two people, it looked like a cross between a horse and an ostrich.

"It's a Thomas, duh." Lina piped up. She sat on another one, reins in hand. "You look like you've never seen one before."

'_It's a chimaera,'_ Edward thought suddenly. It had to be- nothing that awkward would ever have evolved naturally, because predators would have made it extinct. Which meant that at one time or another, this world had to have supported alchemy, which meant-

'_Worry about that later,'_ Edward scolded himself. _'Right now, get to the Plant.'_ He nodded. Once there, things would begin to fall into place.

He had no idea how right he was.

* * *

'_There he is,'_ Millie thought grimly. She crouched in the mouth of a narrow alleyway, hidden in the shadows behind a pile of wooden crates. She watched as he tried to put his arm around the lady who had been with that scientist fellow. The woman was having none of it and pushed his hand away. Milly silently applauded, and Damien merely laughed. However, when he tried to put his arm around her a second time and she again threw him off, he became angry. He hauled back and backhanded her across the face, knocking her to the ground.

'_I wish Nick was here,'_ she thought to herself. All she had was this gun to remember him by, a giant cross replete with a rocket launcher, machine gun and a small arsenal of handguns. She'd kept it well cared for in the years since his death, and now was glad she had. She turned the death's head in the middle of the cross to the left, which opened the armory of Glocks. She pulled two out and stuck them in the waistband of her apron. She pulled two more out and cocked them. She didn't want to die here, but if she did, it'd be fighting not only for the woman's sake, but so her kids could live in a place where there weren't people like Damien to scare them into doing what he wanted.

Then the side door to the alleyway was yanked open and she was pulled inside the building.

"Shh! Shh, Millie, it's okay. It's me." Rosette said. Milly's eyes darted around wildly before they settled on Rosette's face. When she looked like she was calming down, Rosette nodded for the Paladin to remove his hand from her mouth.

"S-Sister?" Milly croaked. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you."

"I can take care of myself."

Rosette coloured. "Helping, then. Look, there's two kids back there who would cry if their mom got hurt, and I'm aiming to prevent that from happening. Now, do you have a gun I can use?"

"But you'll get hurt-"

Rosette smiled. "Trust me." Reaching over, she pulled a gun out of Millie's apron waist band, slid the muzzle back to load the bullet in the chamber, "sighting" the gun by holding it at arms length with both hands and staring down the muzzle and finally cocking it. The Paladin produced his own black cannon, and turned towards Millie. They seemed to be waiting for her. She simply nodded.

"All right," Rosette said. "Then here's what we're going to do…"

* * *

EVE didn't have pain receptors like humans did. She felt the pressure of the blow, but upon doing an automatic diagnostic of her systems and finding no damage, she paid it no mind. After all, given the right conditions she could withstand a tank- it all depended on the energy input. And right now it was not good- not good at all. She'd been maintaining the hologram for over twelve hours now, when it was only designed for eight max. If she didn't recharge soon, she'd shut down. Permanently. 

"Bitch." Damien said contemptuously. "When I tell you to do something, _do it_. It's a whole lot easier on ya." Some of the gang members snickered at her helpless state because they knew that once their leader had had his fill, he'd throw the rest for them to enjoy, like a good pack leader.

"Then again…" Damien said thoughtfully, kicking her for good measure. "I _have _been getting bored lately. Maybe a little feisty like you is what I need to boost my spirits.

EVE lay on the ground, gasping to make them think she was winded. It wasn't hard; that kick would've easily broken her ribs if she'd had any, and at any rate every time he landed a blow it required more power for her to keep from going off-line. One more kick like that and she was finished.

Suddenly a shot rang out, then another. Two of Damien's goons flopped over, dead and another was the unlucky recipient of a bullet in the leg, it having gone in the one dead man's back, through his heart and neatly out between his ribs. Within three seconds a quarter of Damien's thugs were rendered inoperative. The remainder where left looking frantically around, guns gripped tightly in their sweaty palms.

"Put down your guns!" Milly called from the rooftop of the building she'd been hiding beside. It had been her and the Paladin that had shot. Rosette was waiting for a clear shot at Damien, and it was decided that she should remain hidden.

Damien was apoplectic. He had no choice but to nod and have his men drop their guns in the sand. They put their hands on top of their heads as well, just to show that they were completely trustworthy and defenceless. For now.

* * *

Millie and the Paladin appeared and crossed the distance between them and the Rogues in short time, guns at the ready and not looking away from a moment, even as EVE ran to meet them. 

Rosette was just relaxing her finger on the trigger when a shout was heard. Coming from the direction of town was a figure, blurred in the distance. As he drew nearer, she saw it was Vash with the kids walking in front of him. But why?

She was answered as he raised the gun that had been digging into Daniel's back and shot the Paladin from twenty yards away before pointing the gun on the top of the boy's head.

"Anybody move, and I'll put out his lights for good." He snarled.

Ed and his group did not see this, however.

They had come to the Plant from the other side and couldn't hear over the buzz of the Plant's operations.

Edward slid off the Thomas. _'Never again,'_ he silently promised himself.

"So, now what?" Lina asked, gazing up at the huge structure.

"I wish I knew…" he muttered as he examined it. Why did that woman want him here? The scientist in him suspected the whole thing was just due to fever, and was quickly being proved right. But it didn't explain the- the _rightness_ of being here. He put his hands on the glass bulb of the Plant and sighed.

Suddenly the area around his hands glowed blue. It quickly spread over the bulb part of the Plant, and Edward felt himself being pulled in, no matter how he tried to stop himself. It was if two strong men were on the other side, trying to drag him in by his arms. Lina and Meryl grabbed him around the stomach and tried to pull him back, but it was no use. As surely as if he were in quicksand, he sunk deeper and deeper into the blue until he was gone. Meryl and Lina pounded frantically on the glass, but it was futile.

He was gone.

* * *

He stood surrounded by blue light, softly undulating like a calm ocean. A figure appeared in front of him. It was the girl from his fever dream. 

'_Hello again, Edward. I'm glad you could make it.' _ Her mouth did not move, and yet it seemed as though the voice was coming from everywhere at once. Indeed, it sounded as though a multitude were talking in unison.

"What is this place?" he asked.

'_You disappoint me, Edward. I had rather thought you'd have figured it out on your own. Very well, I shall tell you.' _The woman smiled, and suddenly the background changed. He was now floating above the universe, indeed, _all_ universes, which spiralled up in a vertical chain as far as the eye could see.

_'This universe does not transmute the souls of the dead into alchemy, as your universe does, nor does it act like a spiritual cycle, as your friend Rosette's does, creating new life where old life failed and sending the rest to your world. It stores the energy released by Death in the Plants, which are beings made up of consciousnesses not quite dispersed by time and erosion. We are those plants.'_

Faces began to appear everywhere- above, below, all around him. Young, old, pretty, homely, tanned, pale, male, female. When the Voice spoke again, Edward it was all of their voices, being condensed into one.

_'We have abided here in this inanimate form for time immemorial, but now, as our representative has told you, something threatens our existence. He seeks to impose his will on all things, living or dead. But you offer us hope-we know much of you, Edward Elric, and of your abilities. You see, we do not wish to remain in this form any longer- quite frankly, it's boring. We know there's something more to death than this- this state of nothingness. We have seen our living families and friends toil in the harsh, unforgiving land that we have inherited, and could do nothing to help them. But you, Edward Elric, _you_ could become the saviour of this planet and the people who call it home. Take our life-energies, our souls, and create a new Eden for them, so that they may live in comfort and peace. Will you do that, Edward Elric?'_

Edward tried to look away, but no matter where he turned, he was looking into a face. He squeezed his eyes shut. "I- I can't," he said pitifully. "I can't perform alchemy in this world. And besides, you know as well as I do that if I could, and turned your planet from a desert to a paradise, what good would it do? Within a few generations people will have forgotten how hard life was and become greedy and corrupt. That's how it always is. I'm sorry, but I can't help you." He turned away.

"We are willing to take that chance." A single voice said behind him. The woman from the dream held out her hand. "We know the risk, but we have faith in our people. We believe in them, Edward. That they will make the right choices and not squander what they have been given. Please, won't you help us?"

Edward remembered what had happened when he performed alchemy, how it always led to pain and suffering for him and those he cared about. Al, their mother and father, Winry- and most especially himself. He had learned long ago not to chase after what you had lost, because you only stood to lose more. That lesson was engraved into his body and mind for the rest of his life. And yet, he thought suddenly, here he was, trying to do exactly that. Then he thought of Nina- the hell she had went through, and the hell she was going through even to this day, all because of him. If he could rectify even that, he would have hope for the future. Who was he to say who should try and who shouldn't? These people might have better luck than he.

He took the woman's hand.

The effect was instantaneous. It was like he held the sun in his hand- or maybe a black hole as everything, the faces, the planets, everything, was funnelling into him via his right arm.

'Edward!' The woman cried before she, too was sucked into the vortex. 'Tell Vash that Rem said to move on! Don't let him bury his head in the past! Please, tell him!' Then she was gone, never to be seen, nor heard from again.

* * *

"Now, put down your guns and put your hands where I can see them," Vash said. "And come out where I can see you, Sister Rosette." Reluctantly Rosette crossed the distance and dropped her handgun. Millie did the same, looking as though she wasn't sure to be afraid or angry- or both. Only the Paladin hesitated; Finally, he threw down his black cannon onto the top of the pile, as though disgusted to be in such a position.

"It took you long enough!" Damien snarled. He grabbed Vash's shoulder. "Hey, are you listening-" a deafening boom drowned him out as he fell backwards, clutching his stomach. Vash looked coldly on. "Don't ever touch me," he said. "Besides, new orders just came in from the Boss. You're dead weight." A second boom sounded and the lifeless form of the leader of the Red Rogues slumped backwards. "Literally." Vash smirked, before replacing the on the boy's head. Daniel cried out as the hot barrel touched his scalp, and it was all Millie could do to watch.

The goons looked nervously at each other before deciding their lives meant more to them than avenging the corpse that had been their boss and they picked up their guns, pointing them at the rescue team. Suddenly another squad of Rogues came into view from the Plant, bringing a struggling Meryl and Lina with them. They'd been sent to try to find any trace of Meryl and Edwards remains in the fire, and when they couldn't verify their demise they went out hunting. They saw Meryl, Edward and Lina leave the motel and followed them. When they had been dumped to the ground with the rest, Meryl spoke.

"You're not Vash the Stampede," she said, staring steadily at the man who held her children hostage. The gunman raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what makes you say that?

"You've taken Millie's children hostage, and killed a man, two things he'd never do, but most importantly," Meryl touched under the corner of her left eye with her hand, "The real Vash the Stampede has a mole right here- I traveled long enough with him to know that." Indeed, Rosette saw, the man didn't have a beauty mark there, or anywhere on his face.

The impostor-Vash gave a sudden, barking laugh. "It's always that damn mole…" Without letting go of the gun, he gave a hard shove to Danny's back, sending him stumbling towards Millie who grabbed him in a fierce hug. The impostor swung Diana around until she stood in the same spot where her brother had been. With his one hand he kept a firm grip on her while the other hand with the gun still in it swept up towards his face. He passed his hand under his eye and his skin-changed. Where there was once unblemished skin was now a small mole. Rosette gaped.

The impostor-Vash sighed. "Well, little misses," he drawled sarcastically, "Looks like I'm gonna have to dispose of ya's now that's ya's knows my secret." He cocked the gun, aiming at Millie, who was shielding Daniel with her body. Just as he was pulling the trigger the ground erupted.

* * *

Edward was struggling to keep up with the power flow. Once, long, long ago there had been a reaction like this, when he had stood in a room filled with Red Water. He'd nearly died then, but it was like comparing a pond to all the oceans on Earth to this- and if he did not find a way to siphon off this incredible energy, he would burst. All his senses were on fire- he could taste each individual water molecule under the surface of the planet, feel the dry sand that covered everything, smell the despairing determination of the people. But most of all, he could see- not in normal terms, but in energy.

Every living creature exuded light around themselves in an aura, all different shades of blue, depending on the age and character of the person. There were babies whose auras were the softest robin's egg blue, farmers who had a deep, rich navy about them, gangsters and bandits which were corrupted with red so that they were indigo. He saw auras around the Plant- Nina and Meryl, a strong cobalt blue and an equally determined, but softer sky colour, respectively. On the other side were four distinct auras- one that was similar to Meryl's, one a sickly purple, like that of a bruise and one that leaned more towards… yellow. And one, further back that shined forth like a miniature royal blue sun. 'Rosette,' he thought. From his short time traveling with the nun, he knew she was one have that kind of inner strength. Then he noticed something- a totally black aura coming nearer and nearer, with two smaller sapphire-lights in tow. Not good.

He needed to move, and fast.

He raised his right arm and pushed upwards with all his might, changing the particles in the upper layer of the atmosphere into rarefied oxygen, creating an invisible ozone layer around the planet, protecting it from the intense heat of the twin suns. But he did not stop there. As if he were Atlas himself, he gathered all the power at his disposal and pushed again, this time at the planet itself, moving it a fraction of its orbit. This would allow it to change orbits, going around only one sun instead of being mercilessly pounded by two. In time, these changes would allow for the planet to grow grass, then trees, and with them the water cycle of evaporation, condensation and evaporation again could take place, making it truly a paradise.

Edward decided to speed up the process. Buried deep within the sand, near where the soil lay, were seeds, sleeping away the eons. Gathering the remainder of his god-like power, he nudged them awake, encouraging them to dig their roots deep into the rich soil, promising the rains would soon come.

And come they did. Suddenly, from all over the planet, giant storm clouds appeared in the sky, much darker than anything the people of the dry and dusty world had ever seen, pouring forth their bounty of life-giving water. The trees erupted from the ground, the slender young saplings twining around themselves and branching out, their bare limbs rapidly filling up with deep green leaves, doing in seconds what would usually take years, maybe longer.

Exhausted, he could feel himself falling, getting away from the source of his power. As he fell, he could hear the Voice ring out one final time.

'_Thank you, Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. You and your companions will have many adventures before you find home again. A word of warning- Beware of those who bear the mark of the Rook, for they are the agents of Odin. Good luck.'_

* * *

"What th-?" The Impostor-Vash yelled as the ground underneath them shook. All around the group tiny green seedlings sprouted up from underneath the omnipresent sand, becoming three-foot saplings and still growing in a matter of moments as they looked around each other in awe, all enmity gone. Diana used the distraction to scurry into the safety of her mother's arms who proceeded to hold her tight. The saplings had formed a rough circle around them, a dot of yellow in a sea of green.

Edward stepped into the clearing. The reactions ranged from Meryl's and Nina's utter shock, to Rosette's fuming that he couldn't have gotten there sooner to help them, to Millie's being too distracted suffocating her children in hugs to notice, to The Paladin's unreadable expression under the pitch-black visor.

One of the henchmen made to shoot him, but Vash waved him down. Edward took another step, then another. He stopped three yards away from Vash. Vash grinned. "Well, well. Guess I can't call you Fullmetal Shorty anymore, can I?"

Edward smirked. "Long time, no see, Envy."

Envy threw back his head and roared with laughter. When he looked at Edward again he had _changed _again, from Vash to a sort of caricature of Edward. In a way, Envy was Edward's older brother- but only in the sense they have the same father. Envy was a _homunculus, _not quite human and not quite beast, the result of their father's failed experiment to try to revive his stillborn son using human transmutation, a forbidden art.

For his failure, Envy had always hated his father and, by extension, his living brother, Edward, who was everything he was not. His hatred led him to use his special talent of being able to assume the voice and form of anyone he chose to forge himself a new, slightly androgynous form.

However it was his _original_ form, aged to be in his prime that presented itself now. The white, open-necked V-collar shirt and faded blue jeans stayed the same, but there was a tattoo of a rook covering the left side of his face. Edward started. _'"Beware of those who bear the mark of the Rook, for they are the agents of Odin,'" _he remembered.

"What, did Odin promise to turn you into a real boy?" Edward asked.

Envy shook his head. "Odin's big time, Shorty. So big that I don't mind working for him- I've been his agent for a while now." Suddenly it seemed a large chunk fell into place.

Edward said, "It was _you._ You were the creature after me in the other world."

"Guilty." Envy shrugged and reached into his pocket. Edward knew what he was going to pull out, but was still dry-mouthed when he saw what Envy had in his hand.

"The Clock Seal!" Rosette yelled.

Indeed it was. Edward remembered now. _(While in transit he and the devil were struggling for the Clock, biting, kicking, scratching. Finally, with a yank, the devil freed it from both Edward's hand and Rosette's neck as the string snapped, depositing them here.)_ Envy must've backtracked to finish them off.

"Tell you what, Full Metal Dopey, you defeat me and I'll give you this thing back." Envy said, and with that he cocked the gun and fired in one smooth motion.

Even after all the years of not being able to use alchemy, under fire Edward's reflexes did what had saved him so many times before: clapping his hands together to form a circle with which he could create almost anything. Edward knew even while his hands were speeding towards each other that it was a wasted effort, that nothing would happen-

But something did. Not alchemic in nature, but _mechanical._ His human left hand, touched, sent an electric current through his right forearm to open a spring-catch lock, popping up the forearm and two halves of a foot-and-a-half long blade sprang out to connect together to create a razor-edged blade that stuck out parallel to his arm. The bullet ricocheted off the blade and into the stomach of a nearby Red Rogue. The man fell moaning to the ground.

Envy looked at him. "How'd you do that?" he asked, startled.

Edward had no clue. He'd never seen his arm do _that_ before- at least, not in quite that way. However, he couldn't let Envy know that, so he simply smirked- and hoped that he looked more sure than he felt.

Envy shrugged as if it were no big deal. He cocked and fired the gun, again, and again. Two bullets raced for Edward's torso. One he managed to deflect, but the other bounced off the metal plate connecting his mechanical arm to his body, and it _hurt_. He doubled over, clutching his chest. After that, everything seemed to slow to a crawl.

Thinking him mortally wounded and sensing victory, Envy made a fatal mistake. Tossing the gun aside, he turned his own hand into a blade, similar to Edward's and ran towards him, ready to deliver the killing blow.

"DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEAAUGH!"

Edward lifted his arm and Envy ran right into it, impaling himself on the cold steel and coughing blood. The shocked expression he wore as he crumpled to the ground was horrible to behold, and Edward looked away as he got to his feet.

"Heh, Heh…" Envy wheezed as he lay in a pool of spreading blood . "You got me. As per our… agreement, this is yours." He attempted to give Edward the Clock, but was too weak. Edward bent down to take it.

"He's been watching you… for a while, now," Envy wheezed into Edward's ear. Edward stiffened. "He needs you… for something. A… 'catalyst', he said". Envy smirked, a pitiful expression on his dying face.

"See you… on the other side… Brother." Envy's face went still, and Edward thought he almost looked peaceful._  
_

_

* * *

Authour's Note: The tattoo looks like the Iron Eagle of the Nazis, with the wings spread and head turned to the left. It's got nothing to do with the Nazis, it's just what I thought would best suit the rook (crow). The arm-blade comes out like Vash's boot-blade, for those who've seen Trigun._


End file.
